About Us
Stephen Spies and Cheska Navarro are a composer duo writing music for Documentary films! Between the two of them they have an Emmy, music on Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video, and have scored numerous award winning documentary films including the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards hosted by Meryl Streep, BAHALA NA, California’s Forgotten Children, Ulam: Main Dish, and many more! They have over 60 IMDB credits combined, have recorded their soundtracks with every type of ensemble from rock bands to full orchestras, and have had their music in hundreds of film festivals around the world including Cannes, Annecy, Outfest and many more!
Cheska Navarro, a Filipina American composer, began her film scoring journey while still working as a scientist in a clinical laboratory. During this time she started documenting her musical journey on Instagram and YouTube, building a following of film makers and composers. Despite her parents wanting her to go into medicine, she balanced a full time job as a scientist while professional film composing for 3 years until she ultimately had enough scoring work to leave the lab. Now she lives in San Diego with her fiancé and spends her time composing for films, mentoring up-and-coming film composers, and bouldering with friends!
Stephen Spies, started on violin at the age of 5 and began film scoring in middle school when his music composition teacher, Molly Axtmann, had him improvise music for silent films at a local silent film museum. He now lives in Redondo Beach, California with his wife, scoring full time from his home studio. He’s recorded his music with orchestras in Los Angeles, London and Budapest, and holds a BA in Music Composition from UCLA (University of California Los Angeles). In his spare time, he plays guitar, violin and sings with his folk-rock bands, Hello Noon and Star Eyes. He also volunteers as a songwriting instructor at “My Friend’s Place,” a resource center for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
Cheska and Stephen met on Instagram after coming across each other’s work and quickly started writing music together. With Stephen’s expertise as a violin player and Cheska’s mastery of the ukulele and indie synth sounds, they quickly formed a wide ranging and unique voice. Their first collaboration, “Until the End of Time”, brought larger than life strings and synths together with ukulele textures and ambient vocals to score footage from the International Space Station. Inspired by composers such as Max Richter, Jon Brion, José González and Theodore Shapiro, they wrote more tracks refining their sound and building the artistic partnership. They are now scoring documentary films together, and constantly sending Logic files back and forth writing music for numerous projects!