Composers and songwriters Mark Isham, Steve Dorff, Pinar Toprak, Jeff Rona and Christophe Beck are among the honorees and participants in a series of events being staged by the Society of Composers & Lyricists and Nashville Film Festival from Sept. 28 – Oct. 4. The in-person portion of the conference will be hosted at various festival partner venues.

On Friday, Sept. 29, Isham will discuss his career scoring for film and TV in a session moderated by SCL president Ashley Irwin. Isham won a Grammy for best new age performance in 1991 for his album, Mark Isham, and a Primetime Emmy for outstanding main title theme music for CBS’ EZ Streets in 1997. He received an Oscar nomination for best original score for A River Runs Through It in 1993. With more than 125 film scores, Isham has been hailed as an innovator in electronics and a lush orchestral melodist.

Later that afternoon, Dorff, a 2018 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, will delve into his decades-long career. The conversation will be moderated by Tracy McKnight, BMI vice president, creative, film, TV & visual media, with a reception to follow.  Dorff received a Grammy nomination in 1980 for best country song for co-writing the Eddie Rabbitt hit “Every Which Way but Loose” and three Primetime Emmy nods for writing songs for the sitcoms Growing Pains and Major Dad. Dorff, the father of actor Stephen Dorff, may be best known for co-writing the top 20 Hot 100 hits “I Just Fall in Love Again” (Anne Murray) and “Through the Years” (Kenny Rogers).

The Society of Composers & Lyricists in association with ASCAP and the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund will present the SCL Career Symposium as part of the Nashville Film Festival on Saturday, Sept. 30. For the complete schedule, go to https://thescl.com/scl-career-symposium/.

On Saturday evening, Sept. 30, the SCL and Nashville Film Festival will co-host a reception with Electronic Arts Music at Ocean Way Studios in honor of Toprak, who will be awarded the Music City Maestro Award for her continued collaboration with the Nashville scoring community. Toprak received a Primetime Emmy nod in 2020 for the HBO show McMllion$ With her work on Captain Marvel and Fortnite, Pinar is the first female composer to score both a film and video game that have grossed more than $1 billion globally. (Captain Marvel has grossed $1.13 billion globally, according to boxofficemojo.com, with $426.8 million of that coming from the U.S.)

Toprak’s other credits include writing and producing music for Christina Aguilera’s 2019 Xperience Live Show in Las Vegas and conducting Billie Eilish’s performance of “No Time to Die” at the 2022 Oscars ceremony.

On Sunday, Oct. 1, as part of the Nashville Film Festival Awards and Student Awards, The SCL in association with SESAC will present awards for outstanding song and outstanding score for a songwriter and composer in the student film category.

Founded in 1969, the Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm) was one of the first film festivals in the U.S. For more information, visit www.nashfilm.org.

The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) is the primary organization for professional film, television, video game, and musical theatre composers and lyricists.

Edwin Luna y La Trakalosa de Monterrey capture their fourth champ on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart with “No Se Vale.” The group’s latest single rises 3-1 to lead the chart dated Sept. 16.

“No Se Vale” crowns Regional Mexican Airplay in its 10th week with 6.37 million audience impressions. That’s less than a 1% gain from the week prior, earned in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 7, according to Luminate.

“No Se Vale” gives Edwin Luna and La Trakalosa their fourth No. 1 and first in almost two years, after the two-week coronation of “Saludos a Mi Ex” in March 2021. The group achieved its first Regional Mexican Airplay ruler through “Dormida” which dominated for three weeks in 2020. In total, Luna and La Trakalosa have placed nine top 10 entries dating back to 2017 when “Aplauso” reached its No. 4 high.

Beyond the new Regional Mexican Airplay No. 1, “No Se Vale” holds at No. 10 (its peak) on the overall Latin Airplay chart for a second week.

Mora’s Fourth Straight Top 10: Over on Top Latin Albums, Mora picks up his fourth straight top 10 with his fourth album, Estrella. The 15-track set, released via Rimas Entertainment on Aug. 28, advances 12-8 with 9,000 equivalent album units, up 19%, earned in the U.S. during the Sept. 1-7 tracking week.

As with most Latin rhythmic efforts, the bulk of Estrella’s activity comes from streaming equivalent album units. That figure equals to 12.2. million official U.S. on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Album sales and track-equivalent album units, meanwhile, account for the negligible remaining units.

Estrella follows three other top 10s, two No. 4-peaking sets which landed in 2022: While Microdosis endured for 33 weeks, Paraiso’s run completed after six weeks on Top Latin Albums.

Elsewhere, Estrella jumps 6-4 for a new peak on Latin Rhythm Albums. It also debuts at No. 167 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

As Estrella arrives, two songs debut on the Global charts. On Billboard Global 200, “Reina,” with Saiko, debuts at No. 149 after drawing 15.18 million global streams, while “Dónde Se Aprende a Querer” starts at No. 156 with 14.4 million worldwide streams. The former concurrently logged 13.7 international streams with a No. 87 start on Global Excl. U.S., while the latter launched at No. 99 with 12.62 streams outside the U.S.

Universal Music Group Nashville has launched a comedy label, with the first release coming from Nashville-based comedian Nate Bargatze.

Capitol Comedy Nashville will kick off with Bargatze’s Hello, World, out Friday (Sept. 15) on digital service providers (DSPs). The Grammy-nominated Bargatze has released several specials on streaming outlets, including Hello, World, which premiered on Amazon’s Prime Video earlier this year. Bargatze, who The Atlantic dubbed “the nicest man in stand-up,” recently sold out the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and drew more than 30,000 fans to his shows in Chicago. 

“Country music and comedy have always had a throughline connecting lifestyle and culture, sharing stories and character habits through humor,” said UMG Nashville chair/CEO Cindy Mabe in a statement. “We’ve been forever linked going back to the early days of the Grand Ole Opry and classic country shows like Hee Haw where comedians shared billings with musical acts and helped us laugh at ourselves. As we are looking for further ways to reach audiences through storytelling, I feel there is no better time to re-link our comedy history together with the start of our new label, Capitol Comedy Nashville.  

“Nate is an amazing storyteller who uses his own hysterical anecdotes from his life to connect with audiences everywhere,” Mabe continued. “Through his unassuming, self-deprecating humor, Nate has built an incredible fanbase with his stand-up comedy and he most recently broke attendance records in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena. We are so excited to welcome Nate to our label, and we can’t wait to grow the next era of storytelling through comedy.” 

Bargatze intends to create an outlet for other comedians at Capitol Comedy Nashville. 

“I have wanted to expand not only my comedy but also build a world with the many talented comedians I know,” he said. “This partnership is one of the first steps and I’m very thankful to have a guide and platform with Universal Music Group Nashville.”