Kurt Heinecke

Last updated

Kurt Henry Heinecke (born January 10, 1963) is an American composer, musician, songwriter, photographer, and voice actor. He was the music director at Big Idea Entertainment, creators of the computer-animated VeggieTales. He is the Assistant Artistic Director at Music City Strings.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Heinecke was born in Wisconsin on January 10, 1963, and raised in Cullman, Alabama. He came from a musical family, his mother played the organ and was a member of the church choir. During his years at junior high he and his friends started a jazz band called Deathstar which later disbanded in high school. After graduation in 1982, Heinecke studied at the music lab at the University of Montevallo. He also went to study at Luther College where he got his B.A. in band and choral conducting.[ citation needed ]

Music career

After touring around the country and serving as a teacher in the Bahamas, Kurt finally settled down in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois where he later became Director of Church Music at the Park Community Church. Serving as the choir director, he met Lisa who introduced him to her husband Phil Vischer and his friend Mike Nawrocki who would later co-found Big Idea Entertainment. Heinecke joined Phil and Mike and provided music for their video series VeggieTales. He also provided music for other Big Idea productions, such as 3-2-1 Penguins , Jonah and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything . He has received six Dove Awards for his production work with Big Idea. He is also a producer, arranger, and performer at Oak Valley Studios and is the composer of the Adam Raccoon video series. Heinecke is currently composing the music for the CGI remake of Superbook . He is the Assistant Artistic Director at Music City Strings. [1] As of 2019, he has rejoined Big Idea as the music composer and producer for the new VeggieTales television series to be broadcast on TBN. [2]

Photography career

Heinecke took an interest in photography during junior high. He currently owns a photography studio in Franklin, Tennessee, his current residence. His photography includes concerts, events, weddings, and air shows.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cullman, Alabama</span> City in and county seat of Cullman County, Alabama

Cullman is the largest city and county seat of Cullman County, Alabama, United States. It is located along Interstate 65, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Birmingham and about 55 miles (89 km) south of Huntsville. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 14,775, with an estimated population of 18,213 in 2020.

The 34th Annual GMA Dove Awards were held on April 10, 2003 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2002. The show was held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by CeCe Winans and Steven Curtis Chapman.

<i>Trouble with X</i> 1999 studio album by The Ws

Trouble With X is the second and final album by American Christian ska band The W's. Some copies include "The Rumor Weed Song" as a bonus track. The song originally appeared during the credits of the VeggieTales episode Larry-Boy! & the Rumor Weed.

Phillip Roger Vischer is an American filmmaker, author, speaker, podcast host, animator, musician, puppeteer, and voice actor who created the computer-animated video series VeggieTales alongside Mike Nawrocki. He provided the voice of Bob the Tomato and about half of the other characters in the series. Currently, he owns a small film business, Jellyfish Labs, based in Wheaton, Illinois.

Silly Songs with Larry is a regular feature segment in Big Idea's cartoon series VeggieTales. Often secular, they generally consist of Larry the Cucumber singing a humorous novelty song either alone or with some of the other Veggie characters. Occasionally, another character, like Mr. Lunt, Bob the Tomato, Junior Asparagus, Laura Carrot, Archibald Asparagus, Oscar the Polish Caterer, and the French Peas Jean-Claude and Philippe, or an ensemble is featured in Larry's place. The Silly Songs have proven to be a very popular part of the show and have also prompted the release of several "sing-along" and compilation videos of these segments, some wrapped with new material that threads them into a fresh context. Some of the silly songs have been nominated for a GMA Dove Award.

<i>Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie</i> 2002 American film

Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie is a 2002 American computer-animated Christian musical comedy adventure film produced by Big Idea Productions and released by Artisan Entertainment through its F·H·E Pictures label. It is the first feature-length film in the VeggieTales series. The themes for the film are compassion and mercy, using two stories as illustrations linked by the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, who were first seen in the Silly Song of the same name in Very Silly Songs!. The first story takes place in the current day and concerns a mishap with Bob the Tomato and Dad Asparagus on the way to a concert; the second, set in ancient times, is based directly on the biblical story of Jonah. Through both stories, compassion and mercy play a role in giving people a second chance.

Timothy Hodge is an American voice actor, story artist, writer, animator, comedian, and director at Big Idea Entertainment in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has works on the VeggieTales videos as well as other animated projects like 3-2-1 Penguins!.

Cullman High School is the only public high school in the city of Cullman, Alabama as well as the largest high school in Cullman County, Alabama. The school is classified as a 6A school and belongs to the Cullman City School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jam Filled Entertainment</span> Canadian animation studio

Jam Filled Entertainment is a Canadian animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario with additional facilities in Toronto and Halifax and is a division of Boat Rocker Media. It is best known for animating Thomas & Friends between 2013 and 2021 and Nicktoons such as The Loud House and its spinoff The Casagrandes.

The following is a list of albums released with songs from or based on the animated series VeggieTales.

VeggieTales is an American Christian media, computer generated musical children's animation, and book franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series sees fruit and vegetable characters retelling Christian stories from the Bible, with episodes presenting comedy, life lessons according to a biblical world view.

Minno is an online subscription-based streaming media provider created by Erick Goss and Dan Raines. It specializes in Christian programming for children. Subscribers have access to over 2,300 episodes from 130 shows. Video is made available through applications for smartphones, tablets, and popular streaming devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV and Chromecast.

The 29th Annual GMA Dove Awards were held on April 25, 1997, recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 1996. The show was held at the Nashville Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Gary Chapman and CeCe Winans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Idea Entertainment</span> American Christian animation production company

Big Idea Productions, LLC was a Christian-American animation company, best known for its computer-animated VeggieTales series of Christian-themed home videos.

<i>Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures</i> Animated series

Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures is an American animated direct-to-video children's series developed by Tom Bancroft as a spin-off of the VeggieTales franchise created by Big Idea Entertainment. The first video titled "Larryboy and the Angry Eyebrows", was released on March 16, 2002. The videos came to an end with "The Good, The Bad and the Eggly!", released on June 10, 2003, due to Big Idea's bankruptcy. Unlike its predecessor VeggieTales, which was animated in CGI using Softimage 3D and later Autodesk Maya, LarryBoy was animated in 2D animation using Adobe Flash. From September 2006 to November 2009, NBC aired the content of all four videos on its Qubo block alongside airing of VeggieTales videos. Each video contains two segments, a twenty-minute long segment and a seven-minute short segment.

<i>VeggieTales in the House</i> American childrens television series

VeggieTales in the House is an American computer-animated children's comedy streaming television series developed by Doug TenNapel and produced by Big Idea Entertainment, and animated by Bardel Entertainment. It picks up after VeggieTales, a Christian-themed video and film series, featuring anthropomorphic vegetables.

Michael Lewis Nawrocki is an American director, animator, writer, lyricist, and voice actor best known as the co-creator of the long-running, Christian video series, VeggieTales where he voiced Larry the Cucumber. He voiced many other main characters on the show, including Jerry Gourd, and Jean-Claude Pea, and other various characters, is the co-founder of Big Idea Entertainment alongside Phil Vischer, and currently serves as the Executive Vice President of the company. He has directed several of their productions, including the award-winning Silly Songs with Larry segments from VeggieTales.

<i>VeggieTales in the City</i> 2017 American television series

VeggieTales in the City is an American computer-animated children's comedy streaming television series produced by Big Idea Entertainment. The series is a sequel to VeggieTales in the House. It premiered on Netflix on February 24, 2017 with the release of 13 episodes. A second season was released on September 15, 2017.

<i>The VeggieTales Show</i> Television series

The VeggieTales Show is an American Christian computer-animated television series created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. The series served as a revival and sequel of the American Christian computer-animated franchise VeggieTales. It was produced through the partnerships of TBN, NBCUniversal, Big Idea Entertainment, and Trilogy Animation, and ran from October 22, 2019, to April 1, 2022.

References

  1. "Staff Bios". Music City Strings. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  2. "VeggieTales is Back: Brand New VeggieTales Show Trailer". VeggieTales Official. 2019-04-24. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14 via YouTube.