Emily Bear, Josh Kelley, & More Join ASCAP Music Café Lineup at Sundance

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has revealed the ASCAP songwriters and composers taking the stage for the 28th Annual ASCAP Music Café at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

This year’s ASCAP Music Café will host performances from Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer and songwriter Emily Bear (The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, Moana 2), pop, rock and country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, American glam rock band Foxy Shazam, Grammy-winning artist-songwriter Nathalia, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ron Artis II and composer, drummer, DJ, producer and musical polymath Photay.

The Café will feature exciting live music performances and interviews with top film music composers on Sunday, January 25, from 2:00 - 6:00 PM and Monday, January 26 from 2:00 - 5:00 PM at Acura’s House of Energy, 550 Swede Alley, Park City, UT. See the full schedule and get performer/panelist bios here. 

ASCAP Screen Time, the ASCAP Film & Television team’s ongoing interview series about the craft and business of music for screens, will present three exclusive conversations with the creators behind some of the festival’s most anticipated films.

Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna joins director Tamra Davis to discuss her documentary The Best Summer, an oral and visual history of an era-defining moment in music with behind-the-scenes footage featuring Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps and Bikini Kill.

Then, composer Shelby Gaines and director Padraic McKinley will discuss working on the film The Weight, a tense, atmospheric Depression-era crime drama that follows a group of desperate convicts on a perilous journey through a physically and morally treacherous backcountry. The interview series will also feature composer Anna Meredith in conversation with directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer on scoring the film Wicker, a twisted, unconventional love story set in a medieval fishing village.

“For 28 years, the ASCAP Music Café at the Sundance Film Festival has built a rich history celebrating the love affair of music and film and the creators behind it from the Festival’s home in Park City," said Loretta Muñoz, ASCAP AVP Membership. “We’re grateful for our enduring partnership with the Sundance Film Festival and look forward to this year’s event at The Acura House of Energy, where we’ll once again create the magic the Café is known for with intimate performances and conversations from a remarkable lineup of songwriters and composers.” 

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