Music Hall of Fame names new honorees. Why this Hollywood composer made the list

Jeff Atmajian’s connection to Hollywood isn’t readily obvious, in the manner of a lead actor or director.

While he is a composer and conductor, the bulk of his work has been as an orchestrator, which is like a cinematographer but for a film’s music. It’s Atmajian’s job to help bring the composer’s creation to life.

Which the Fresno native has done hundreds of times in his career.

In fact, if you’ve seen a movie in the past two decades, you’ve likely experienced his work; most recently in “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” and also in “The American President,” “The Sixth Sense” and “Joker,” several of the “The Hunger Games” films, “Creed,” “Creed III” and both film adaptations of “Wicked,” among others. Lots of others.

The work earned the 66-year-old a spot in the Valley Music Hall of Fame, which announced a new class of inductees at an event last week. An official installation ceremony is set for Sept. 16 at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater.

The Hall of Fame started in 2017 as a way to recognize and chronicle the vast, often unnoticed and under-appreciated, talent that has come out of the area. The organization has honored more than two dozen inductees since 2020.

Atmajian grew up in Fresno, where he started taking classical piano lessons at age 8. By 15, he was studying jazz piano as well (in both its traditional and modern forms) and already composing music. He graduated from Hoover High School before enrolling at Fresno State, where he played in both the A and B jazz bands. He also played accompaniment for ballet and modern dance classes at the time, according to a 1992 story in The Fresno Bee. He later earned an advanced degree at the University of Southern California, as one of 12 students in the “Advanced Studies for the Music Industry” program.

There, he learned film scoring and arranging and began making the connections that would bring him into the film business.

While he currently splits his time between Los Angeles and London, Atmajian has made it back to Fresno for speaking engagements and to work on local productions. He was recently the featured speaker at a fundraiser for the Cultural Arts and North Fresno Rotary clubs.

The orchestrator is one of five inductees to the Hall of Fame’s 2026 class. Also announced at last week’s event:

• Glen Delpit, a musician and unofficial archivist who helped bring to Fresno nightclubs the idea of local bands playing original music. He was part of The Houserockers, a legendary band that held a standing gig at the Wild Blue Yonder in the 1980s. He was the venue’s community-chosen musician of the year in 1990. He continues to perform with The Subterraneans.
• Beverly Greene, aka BabyBee, an R&B blues singer who led the all-female blues ensemble Oakland Blues Divas. Born in Stuttgart, Germany and raised in Fresno, Green was a drummer before becoming a band leader. She has played major music events such as the Monterey Blues Festival and East Bay-based Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival. Beyond music, she’s known for community work with groups such as the African American Farmers of California.
• Frank Hicks, who had a career in Western swing and country music in Fresno after World War II that included a stint playing fiddle with the famous Bob Wills. That was until the ‘60s, when he discovered the folk movement happening at Sweet’s Mill, an old logging camp that held an annual music festival/campout. He eventually started the Sweet’s Mill Mountain Boys with fellow Valley Music Hall of Fame inductee Kenny Hall.
• Joe Holley, another member of Bob Wills famous Western swing band. When he semi-retired from the band in 1949, he had played longer and traveled more miles with Wills than any other Texas Playboy fiddler. And he still sat in with Wills from time to time and played on a highly-regarded reunion album in the 1970s. Holley officially settled in Fresno in 1945, where he owned a mom-and-pop market with his wife.
• Ed Hull, who would become known as the Tuba Man. It was his first instrument for the Coalinga-born musician and educator and the focus of instruction when he was brought on as a professor at Fresno State in 1996. This was after a decade with Fresno Unified School District, where he developed what would become a model music program at Manchester GATE Elementary School. Hull was also one of the founders of University High School on the Fresno State campus, where he started its jazz program.

Valley Music Hall of Fame inductees (full list)

This is the sixth class of inductees to the Valley Music Hall of Fame. Honorees are chosen annually, by the Hall of Fame’s board via public nominations, which are evaluated based on the connection to the Valley, plus “community service, recording status, professional points of interest and public visibility.” Nominations for next year’s inductee class are open now.

The first class was inducted in 2021 in an online ceremony that aired on CMAC.TV. Subsequent induction ceremonies have been held at Roger Rockas Music Hall and have, historically been sell-out events. Tickets for this year’s ceremony will be available Aug. 19.

Prior inductees into the Valley Music Hall of Fame are:

• Class of 2021: Russel S. Howland, Dr. James. H. Winter, Dick Contino, Audra McDonald and Dave Stogner
• Class of 2022: Gene Bluestein, Ray Camacho, The Fresno Musical Club, Allen and Faye Harkins, and Richard Hagopian
• Class of 2023: Benjamin Boone, Kenny Hall, Redbone, Dr. Juan Serrano and Ann Leonardo Thaxter
• Class of 2024: Evo Bluestein, John Chookasian, John Clifton, Anna Hamre and Marisa Orduño
• Class of 2025: Pat Wolk, Agustin Lira, Omar Sharriff, Jo Stafford and Bill Church