MODERN LIT

Musical Artist/Album of the Week

Introducing the Music of the Week feature: a curated sonic companion to our literary explorations.

January 18th – 24th, 2026

Duncan Blickenstaff is a Los Angeles-based composer whose lyrical style and ear for the shadings of character and drama have carried him from apprentice to A-list scorer. He earned his MFA in Music Composition for the Screen from Columbia College Chicago under Andy Hill, then cut his teeth working alongside Oscar-winning composers Mychael Danna and Rob Simonsen. That mentorship led to contributions on projects like Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Age of Adaline, and Transcendence, plus the Emmy-winning World Without End. Now composing his own scores, his credits span Netflix’s Nobody Wants This (with a Season 2 already released), PBS’s A Brief History of the Future, Hulu’s Reboot, and the 2024 feature film It Ends With Us alongside Simonsen. Blickenstaff’s work consistently threads emotional nuance through character-driven storytelling—whether scoring romantic drama or documentary content, he brings an intimate, evocative voice that elevates the material.

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Featured Music of the Week seeks to highlight artists who do something meaningful with music—composers, musicians, and creators who use their craft to move people, tell stories, and leave a mark. Know someone we should feature? Let us know.