YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - In 2013, the Youngstown Scoring Stage was formed. 

The goal was to boost the local economy and give local professional musicians employment by performing, recording and producing soundtracks for films and commercials. The company has come a long way and is making a big name for themselves.

"We're bringing outside work to Youngstown and we want to keep that trend happening," said YSS Conductor and Director Todd Maki.

This past week, YSS got a major client from the music industry, Jim Daneker. Daneker is the keyboardist and Musical Director for Christian artist Michael W. Smith.

"I think there's music here that's meant to encourage people," said Daneker.

Daneker is an accomplished composer and after more than 20 years of working for other artists, he decided to write and record his own music.

"All that time, I've had this dream,  like any musician, I want to do my own thing," said Daneker. "I have my own thing I want to say and for the longest time it just never felt like it was the right time and I think, for me, it took going through some really hard stuff in life to really have something to say artistically and musically and when I kind of got back on my feet a few years ago I thought, you know what, this fire is really burning in me more than ever to get this out." he said.

To help Daneker translate his thoughts into sounds, he hired YSS. Daneker and YSS Conductor Todd Maki first met via a Craigslist ad. They became fast friends in 2010 and kept in touch ever since.  

"The idea is this is always a collaborative effort, this is not about me," said Daneker. "I mean it's music that I've written, obviously, but it's only meaningful when you share it with people and that goes for the creative process. If it were just me doing this by myself, it would not be that interesting. But when you get a bunch of great, highly skilled musicians involved, it brings it to life and this is a first for me. I've done this for other people but never for myself or never my own music and so it's a big deal for me to hear this for the first time, living with it for a year, just on the computer, all of a sudden these folks bring it to life," he said.

"Jim's session is really special because he's a good friend of mine and he's written a lot of really challenging music that we have a short amount of time to pound it out," said Maki. "But these are Youngstown players. It's a testament to how from Nashville to Youngstown we can do it here, we've got the resources to make it happen," he said.

Daneker said he had a tough time holding it together when YSS first started playing during a two day recording session at Stambaugh Auditorium.

"I'm trying to hold it together. I mean, it's very emotional material. A lot of this was written in hard times for me and so it's got a lot of variables, lot of things happening, but the first time these guys started from the first note, I thought, OK, this is gonna be tough to get through but in the very best way. You know, it's a dream come true for me," said Daneker.

It's something Maki, who is also a composer, can relate to.

"The process when you work as a composer and you write these things down on paper and you kind of hope that it sounds a certain way and then all of a sudden you hear it come to life and it's literally like having a child born. You feel this emotion. It was just something that was an idea, then all of sudden, all of these people are focusing their energy to getting it just right for you and really, it's an overwhelming. I love it. It's awesome every time it happens," said Maki.

Concert Master Brendan Considine says every session with YSS is fun and exhilirating, but this sesson was really special. 

"I think the string parts are challenging, but they are very well written and we're really having a great time trying to do the ins and outs and it's very dynamic because we're all working together. We're sight reading, so we're trying to make music you know in a moment," said Considine.

"Having someone like Jim who works as a professional touring musician from Nashville hire the Youngstown Scoring Stage is a real validation that we are doing national quality work," said Maki.

It's a thundering ovation that the Mahoning Valley has some of the finest musicians in the world.

As for Daneker's CD, you might recognize some of the sound.

"I grew up on a steady diet of film music; John Williams, James Horner and Hans Zimmer, all these guys.  Growing up in the 80s, Star Wars, and E.T., so that stuff's been in there for a long time and it's really been a matter of finding the right time. So for the last year, I decided to step away from working for everybody else and just decided to do this and it's ending up being about an hour and ten minutes worth of music that's going to be on this project," said Daneker.

Jim Daneker's CD titled "AD Alta" is set to be released in April.