Jason Poss and Danita Ng-Poss of Symbols of Sound: The Unsung Maestros Behind Hollywood’s Most Iconic Sounds
“Who you know might open the door, but what you know is what keeps you in the room.” — Jason Poss
I had the pleasure of talking with Jason Poss and Danita Ng-Poss. Jason and Danita are the co-founders of Symbols of Sound, a Los Angeles-based orchestration / music preparation and production company whose work supports some of Hollywood’s most high-profile films, television shows, and live performances. With expertise spanning orchestration, music preparation, and production consultation, the duo has helped shape the soundtracks of award-winning projects, including Disney’s Moana 2, Mufasa, and numerous other productions across the entertainment industry.
The couple’s recent contributions to Moana 2 highlight the crucial yet often unseen role they play in global film localization. They meticulously transcribed vocal performances and created precise sheet music, enabling the film’s songs to be adapted into more than 40 languages. This painstaking process helped Moana 2 set a box office record of $389 million during its opening weekend, the highest ever for an animated feature. Their role ensured that international audiences could experience the film’s musical essence with cultural and linguistic accuracy.
Jason and Danita’s paths to music began worlds apart. Danita, originally from Borneo, Malaysia, discovered her passion for music at age seven when she began organ lessons. Encouraged by her parents, she expanded into piano and composition, eventually attending Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Jason, raised outside Chicago, started as a church choir singer and percussionist. His musical journey took him from performing in drum corps competitions to studying percussion and jazz vibraphone, which also led him to Berklee — where the two met.
Their partnership grew organically. During college, Danita organized a student orchestra, and Jason helped recruit musicians and manage production logistics. After graduation, they launched careers in Chicago’s jazz scene and New York’s jingle production industry. A fellowship with TV composer Mike Post eventually brought them to Los Angeles, where they worked on music preparation for major TV awards shows like the Oscars and the Emmys.
The turning point came when Danita secured a role at Bill Hughes Music, a music preparation house. Jason joined as a proofreader and quickly became integral to the company. When Hughes passed away, the couple decided to launch Symbols of Sound, carrying forward his legacy while modernizing the process with cutting-edge digital tools.
Despite technological advances, Jason and Danita emphasize that their craft remains deeply human. Music transcription software can assist but falls short when faced with complex harmonies, improvised performances, and evolving production requirements. Their process involves listening to and notating every vocal and instrumental line by ear, ensuring musical accuracy for live performances and international recordings.
Their work extends beyond film. Recent projects include music preparation for Broadway-bound productions, AAA video games, and high-profile televised events. Their ability to adapt and manage projects across genres has kept Symbols of Sound at the forefront of the industry.
Beyond their professional achievements, Jason and Danita advocate for kindness, resilience, and lifelong learning. They attribute their success to a blend of technical expertise, industry mentorship, and a shared commitment to excellence. As they continue to shape the soundscapes of iconic entertainment properties, their influence resonates far beyond the recording studio.
Danita and Jason, it’s an honor to meet you both. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn about each of your personal origin stories. I guess we can start with Danita first. Danita, can you share with us the story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Danita: I grew up in Borneo, an island in Asia that’s part of Malaysia. My story has always been a musical journey from Borneo to Boston. I went to Berklee College of Music, but my musical journey started much earlier — when my mother took organ lessons. I was about seven years old, and she noticed that I was interested.
Long story short, she signed me up for organ lessons, and it all grew from there — organ lessons led to piano lessons, then to composing lessons. Before I knew it, I was entering competitions, writing my own music, and even transcribing songs I recorded from TV using my dad’s radio.
At a very early age, I knew music was something I wanted to pursue. So off I went from Borneo to Boston, with a duffle bag in one hand, a boombox in the other, and a one-way ticket. In Boston, I went to college, and pretty much the rest is history. I thought, “I’m in America now, so what’s next?” I just kept going. That’s pretty much how I started.
Jason, how about you? What’s your origin story?
Jason: I grew up outside of Chicago. I started out singing in choirs at church and playing music there. In high school, I wanted to take drum lessons and eventually wound up touring with drum and bugle corps across the Midwest during my later high school years.
I received a scholarship to study percussion at the University of Michigan, but after about three years, I realized I really wanted to pursue jazz. So, I transferred to Berklee College of Music to study jazz vibraphone — and that’s where Danita and I met.
After college, I moved back to Chicago, and Danita got an internship with a jingle house doing TV commercials there, so she came back too. I played on the Chicago jazz scene with a drummer named Barrett Deems, who used to play with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.
After Barrett passed away, we decided to move to New York City, where we both worked in the jingle business. Eventually, we landed a fellowship with Mike Post, the composer for a lot of iconic TV shows from the ’80s and ’90s. He had a huge influence on us and was the one who encouraged us to move out to Los Angeles.
Do you want to share a bit about how you two met?
Danita: Jason claims it was the first day of college. Coming from so far away, I was experiencing a bit of sensory overload — the people, the culture, the food — everything was new. Jason says we met during orientation at Berklee College of Music, but I don’t think I made much of an impression because that time was kind of a blur for me.
We ended up becoming really good friends for three years. We were always hanging out, talking about music, and sharing ideas. We even started working on a lot of creative projects while we were still in college.
I was writing a lot of music and trying to put together an orchestra. At the time, there wasn’t an official orchestra at Berklee, so I decided to create one myself. But organizing 30-something musicians — especially students with their own schedules, projects, and deadlines — was a huge challenge. Jason said, “I think I can help you,” so I hired him as my percussionist, and things just started falling into place from there.
Jason: Since I was performing a lot, I knew many of the other musicians at Berklee and even some from other colleges. I helped her recruit players and assisted with producing the sessions. From that point on, our relationship just naturally grew — and now, 25 years later, we’re still working together.
So can you share a bit about how you started the company and how it developed?
Jason: We didn’t work together much right after college. I was busy performing, and Danita was focused more on writing. Then one day, while she was working at a jingle house in New York City, she came home and said, “Hey, I have an opportunity to write for this Crest TV commercial. They want a vocal percussion thing, so you’re going to help me write this.” She basically grabbed me and pulled me into the project.
We wrote it together, and it went really well — we won the account, and the commercial aired worldwide. That was the moment we realized, “Hey, maybe we should do more work together.”
Later, when we moved out to Los Angeles, Danita got a job at a music prep house called Bill Hughes Music, run by Bill Hughes, who had worked all the way back to The Dean Martin Show. They were swamped with work and needed extra help, so Danita suggested, “Hey, my husband can do this — he can help proofread.” That was my entry point into working with her there.
Before long, we were doing major projects like the Oscars and the Emmys. Bill would land the jobs, then hand the work over to us, and we basically ran the show from there. When Bill passed away a few years ago, we decided to strike out on our own. We picked up where he left off and continued doing the same kind of work — but under our own company.
Danita: It was such a gift to have Bill as a mentor, even though we didn’t realize at the time that he was mentoring us. He would just pull us aside and say, “Hey, come over here. I want to show you how music prep was done before computers.”
He taught us about the old-school ways of preparing music, using tools like the Ozalid machine and music correction strips. Those were these adhesive strips with five printed lines that matched staff paper. If there was a mistake on a handwritten score, you could cover the error with the strip, “white it out,” and rewrite the correction by hand.
Jason: Learning from that last generation of hand music copyists and orchestrators was such a huge influence on us. It really shaped how we approach our work today. We had the unique experience of helping bridge that old-school method into the computer age, carrying forward those same standards of precision and craftsmanship.
So is the work today as simple as just feeding music into a computer and having it transcribe it, kind of like how AI transcribes an interview?
Jason: Oh my goodness — if only! With all the talk about AI these days, people often ask, “If we want to put music on paper and have a recording, aren’t there computers that can do that automatically?”
The answer is — yes, sort of. But the moment you want something at a professional, readable level — or if the music is even remotely complicated — it breaks down very quickly. That’s where you need a professional eye, ear, and hand to make the music look correct, and make sense to a musician.
Danita: The horror stories we’ve heard from people underestimating the importance of creating clean, accurate sheet music are endless. It’s just not a one-click process — and it never was. I can almost guarantee it never will be.
Even though technology keeps getting better, you still need a human being to interpret the music. It’s very similar to writing — you can have AI draft an article, but then need to check the grammar, verify facts, and polish the tone. That can be more difficult than writing it yourself.
Jason: With music preparation, the material is more abstract than text. Written music not only tells you the notes and rhythms; it also gives information on how it should be performed — how to phrase, suggestions for when to breathe, when to be loud or soft. That requires performance, cultural, and contextual understanding and experience.
Danita: We must always think from multiple perspectives to make decisions about what goes on the page. That is something AI may never be able to do.
Can you share a story or an example of how a company would come to you and ask for your services? Like, I know you were involved with Moana — how did that come about, and what exactly did you do for Moana?
Jason: We offer a range of music services. Essentially, we handle everything it takes to get music from a composer’s desktop to a final performance or recording. There are many steps involved, depending on what the composer or production team needs.
For the past 18 years, we’ve worked with Disney Character Voices International, the division responsible for localizing Disney’s films and TV shows. They work with translators, voice actors, and production teams worldwide to dub Disney content into foreign languages.
In a case like Moana, Disney comes to us with the songs from the film. Our job is to transcribe exactly what’s performed on screen and create precise sheet music that reflects the final version of the songs. That sheet music is then sent to translators across the globe, who adapt the lyrics into various languages. After that, voice actors playing the characters in different countries record the songs in their native languages.
This often raises the question, “Why can’t they just use the original sheet music from when they made the film?” The reality is, by the time a film like Moana is completed, the original sheet music — if it even exists — may not be accurate anymore.
Danita: Sometimes, the music created during the film’s production may have been improvised in the studio or not fully written down. Even if there was sheet music early on, the recording process is very fluid. They may record, edit, and restructure the song multiple times to fit the film’s final cut.
For example, during the editing process, they might decide that the second verse of a song is too long and cut it out entirely. So, by the time the film is finished, the original sheet music might be outdated or incomplete.
Jason: The translators and voice actors dubbing the songs in other languages need music that’s 100% accurate to what’s on screen — not what might have been written earlier — because they have to match the lip movements of the animated characters singing on screen. That level of precision is critical, and that’s where we come in.
Is part of the work that you do separating the words from the backing track or background music? Is that something you also handle?
Jason: That part is done by the audio engineers. When the music is recorded, the vocals and instruments are usually tracked separately, which can make our jobs easier. Sometimes we get those tracks separated, and sometimes we don’t — it really depends on what’s provided to us.
Our job is to listen through everything and figure out what every person is singing, then notate it accurately so it can be recreated. For example, you might have a lead character singing the melody, but underneath that, there could be an entire choir that was overdubbed multiple times to create a full, layered sound.
We have to break down all of that and decide the clearest, most precise way to represent it in sheet music so it can be faithfully reproduced. Disney takes a lot of pride in making sure their localized versions sound as close to the original as possible.
That’s so interesting. So you’re saying the sheet music isn’t just for the instruments — it includes all the vocals, choirs, and background harmonies too? You transcribe everything? Fascinating.
Danita: Exactly. Just to clarify, though — when Disney re-records the music for different languages, they don’t re-record the instrumental tracks. Those instrumental tracks stay the same. They only re-record the vocals, since those need to be in the new language and performed by voice actors playing the characters in each region. Other projects require us to transcribe both the vocals and the instruments, but for localization it is only the vocals.
Jason: And for our part of the process, there’s no shortcut — you do it by ear. We go through each note, each phrase, as accurately as possible, making sure every vocal and harmony line is properly transcribed. It’s meticulous work, but it’s what ensures the final product sounds seamless and true to the original.
So interesting. I’ve always wondered — it must take an enormous amount of talent when re-dubbing a song into another language. If the original song rhymes, how do they manage to make it rhyme in the new language while still sounding musical and fitting the melody? That seems incredibly difficult.
Jason: Yes, absolutely. That’s why Disney takes such care to make sure we provide the translators with extremely accurate transcriptions of the music. Translating text on its own is one thing, but translating song lyrics is a whole different process.
Whatever the translated lyrics are, they have to match the rhythm and phrasing of the original melody. The translation also has to follow any rhyme schemes in the original song, which can be very tricky because languages have different structures and patterns.
On top of that, there’s the cultural aspect. Phrases that make sense in English — or have a specific cultural meaning in the U.S. — might not translate directly into another language. In those cases, they have to rewrite the lyrics in a way that keeps the same emotional meaning or storytelling intent, while still fitting musically. It’s an incredibly complex process.
Danita: And they also have to be culturally sensitive to whatever region the song is being adapted for. Even if the translators don’t have a full understanding of the culture, they need at least a strong foundational knowledge of what would be appropriate or meaningful in that language.
So you’re saying it’s not just about matching the rhyme — it’s also about matching the rhythm, the meter, and even cultural nuances?
Jason: Exactly. There have been times when we’ve transcribed a song, looked at the lyrics, and thought, “I’m so glad I’m not the translator — I have no idea how they’re going to make this work!”
One funny example comes to mind from an episode of Phineas and Ferb years ago. There was a joke where a character sang, “The Black Knight of Worcestershire… some say it’s Worcestershire,” playing on the famously tricky pronunciation of “Worcestershire” in English.
That joke doesn’t translate at all into another language. I can’t even imagine how the translators adapted that line! Humor, especially wordplay and puns, is one of the hardest things to translate while keeping the intended comedic effect intact. It’s a whole other art form.
You’ve been blessed with a lot of success. Can you share with our readers five things you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started?
Oh boy, you’re assuming we know five things.
- Danita: One thing I can think of is stamina. I did not realize the level of stamina you need to pursue the path we’ve taken. When we were both working on Dancing with the Stars, the stamina it took to get through an entire season was intense — both mentally and physically. You have to push through without burning out. The mental and physical energy — that’s the stamina I’m talking about.
- Jason: I think another important thing — and this is something we often tell young people — is that your career in this industry is never going to be exactly what you expect or plan it to be. I never thought I’d be working as an orchestrator or in music preparation. That field had zero appeal to me until I was finally exposed to it. Then I realized it was something I enjoyed and something I was actually very good at.
- Danita: Eating well. You’ve got to take care of your body. You’ve got to eat well and exercise. It may sound a little cliché — you know, everybody comes to L.A. wanting to work out and stay fit — but it really does help. These are things you don’t think about. Even as a music librarian, I often joke about going to events like the Oscars and Emmys with multiple suitcases — and I mean plural. There’d be four or five of them, and each one probably weighed more than I do because they were filled with sheet music. It’s a lot of lifting. People underestimate how much paper weighs when you’ve got thousands of pages of music that need to be moved around.
- Danita: Know your craft. Whatever area of the music industry you want to work in — conducting, performing, composing, arranging, orchestrating, music prep — whatever it is, dive deep and learn it inside and out. You never know when knowledge you gained years ago will suddenly become relevant. So many times, Jason and I have found ourselves pulling out something we studied ages ago, thinking we’d never need it — and then there we are, using it when it matters most. Know your craft.
- Jason: And here’s probably the fifth thing, which ties in with what Danita was saying about knowing your craft: There are more people who want to work in this business than there are jobs. That reality shapes every aspect of your career. This is where knowing your craft becomes essential, because the competition is fierce. Sometimes people think, “Oh, it’s all about who you know, not what you know.” But that’s only half true. Who you know might open the door, but what you know is what keeps you in the room.
You mentioned the importance of taking care of yourself. Can you share with our readers some of the self-care routines you use to help your body, mind, and heart thrive?
Danita: Yes, I have a routine that I’ve developed over the past 10 years. Without sounding very “L.A. cliché,” I love my yoga — especially hot yoga. I go to practice and follow my 90-minute routine. While I originally started for the physical benefits, I realized that yoga also relaxes my mind. In fact, what I practice in yoga often applies to what I do every day in music as well.
Jason: We also hike a lot. I make a point of walking three miles a day. This job can keep you stuck in a chair in front of a computer for far longer than any human being should be. Making a point to get up and move is crucial for two reasons.
Danita: First, there are the obvious health benefits — motion is good for your body. Secondly, the amount of concentration and focus this work requires is intense. Keeping yourself physically fit enhances your ability to concentrate and stay mentally sharp.
Jason: Another important thing we’ve learned is that music isn’t the only thing in the world. It can seem like it is because people make what we do feel so important — but no one’s life depends on what we do, and no one should ever die because of what we do. Keeping that perspective and making sure you have other things in your life that bring joy and meaning is essential to surviving long-term in this business.
This is our aspirational question. Because of your great work and the platform you’ve built, both of you are people of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Jason: We may come up with slightly different answers for this, but I think for me, if there was some way — and I’ve never thought about how to do this — but if there was some way to simply encourage people to be mindful of those around them… Things like simple kindness, considering how your actions affect others down the line when you’re doing a job — that would go so far in improving our governments, our social conditions, and the way we approach both basic and complex problems in the world. Simple awareness of other people. I’m not sure exactly where to start other than trying to do it every day in my own life. I wish I could encourage more people to try that because it’s not always easy.
Danita: Yeah, I think I try my best to be kind. That’s the thing I strive for every day — just to be kind. Whether it’s people in the business, people outside the business, or when I go to the supermarket and see someone carrying bags of stuff they need to check out while I only have two items, I let them go ahead. I say, “Why don’t you go first because it looks like you could use a break from carrying all that weight.” Just a simple act of kindness.
Jason: Yeah. And these aren’t the kinds of things you normally hear from aspirational businesspeople or celebrities. But most of us don’t have the opportunity to run some giant philanthropic organization. The world would be a very different place if we were all just a little more aware of those around us in our small circles.
How can our readers engage your services? How can they continue to follow your work and support you in any possible way?
Danita: Well, if you need the services we provide, you can always find us online at SymbolsOfSound.com. That’s the easiest way — you can reach out through our website. We’re the kind of service people don’t typically look for unless they absolutely need it. I mean, your average person on the street doesn’t need someone to copy orchestra parts for them.
Aside from movie studios, what other types of clients reach out to you?
Jason: Right now, we’re actually in the middle of working on a stage musical that’s going to be recorded in January in London and will have its West End premiere later next year. It’s a show called Jo — The Little Women Musical, based on Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women. So we do work for live shows, concerts, television, streaming, and even video games as well.
So interesting. Jason and Danita, it’s been such a delight to meet you. This has been a wonderful, inspiring conversation. I wish you continued success and blessings, and I hope we can do this again next year.
Danita: It’d be a pleasure. It’s been wonderful meeting you too.
Jason: Thank you for the thoughtful questions.
Jason Poss and Danita Ng-Poss of Symbols of Sound: The Unsung Maestros Behind Hollywood’s Most… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.