Favorite Film/TV/Video Game Composers
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German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to be aired on MTV (August 1, 1981).
Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, then in West Germany, the son of Brigitte (Weil) and Hans Joachim Zimmer. He entered the world of film music in London during a long collaboration with famed composer and mentor Stanley Myers, which included the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). He soon began work on several successful solo projects, including the critically acclaimed A World Apart, and during these years Zimmer pioneered the use of combining old and new musical technologies. Today, this work has earned him the reputation of being the father of integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements.
A turning point in Zimmer's career came in 1988 when he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture Oscar recipient, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), starring Jessica Tandy, and Morgan Freeman.
Having already scored two Best Picture winners, in the early 1990s, Zimmer cemented his position as a preeminent talent with the award-winning score for The Lion King (1994). The soundtrack has sold over 15 million copies to date and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, an American Music Award, a Tony, and two Grammy Awards. In total, Zimmer's work has been nominated for 7 Golden Globes, 7 Grammys and seven Oscars for Rain Man (1988), Gladiator (2000), The Lion King (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), The The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and The Last Samurai (2003).
With his career in full swing, Zimmer was anxious to replicate the mentoring experience he had benefited from under Stanley Myers' guidance. With state-of-the-art technology and a supportive creative environment, Zimmer was able to offer film-scoring opportunities to young composers at his Santa Monica-based musical "think tank." This approach helped launch the careers of such notable composers as Mark Mancina, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Klaus Badelt.
In 2000, Zimmer scored the music for Gladiator (2000), for which he received an Oscar nomination, in addition to Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Awards for his epic score. It sold more than three million copies worldwide and spawned a second album Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture, released on the Universal Classics/Decca label. Zimmer's other scores that year included Mission: Impossible II (2000), The Road to El Dorado (2000), and An Everlasting Piece (2000), directed by Barry Levinson.
Some of his other impressive scores include Pearl Harbor (2001), The Ring (2002), four films directed by Ridley Scott; Matchstick Men (2003), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), and Thelma & Louise (1991), Penny Marshall's Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and A League of Their Own (1992), Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), Tears of the Sun (2003), Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991), Days of Thunder (1990), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and the animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) for which he also co-wrote four of the songs with Bryan Adams, including the Golden Globe nominated Here I Am.
At the 27th annual Flanders International Film Festival, Zimmer performed live for the first time in concert with a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Choosing selections from his impressive body of work, Zimmer performed newly orchestrated concert versions of Gladiator, Mission: Impossible II (2000), Rain Man (1988), The Lion King (1994), and The Thin Red Line (1998). The concert was recorded by Decca and released as a concert album entitled "The Wings Of A Film: The Music Of Hans Zimmer."
In 2003, Zimmer completed his 100th film score for the film The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, for which he received both a Golden Globe and a Broadcast Film Critics nomination. Zimmer then scored Nancy Meyers' comedy Something's Gotta Give (2003), the animated Dreamworks film, Shark Tale (2004) (featuring voices of Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, and Martin Scorsese), and Jim Brooks' Spanglish (2004) starring Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni (for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination). His 2005 projects include Paramount's The Weather Man (2005) starring Nicolas Cage, Dreamworks' Madagascar (2005), and the Warner Bros. summer release, Batman Begins (2005).
Zimmer's additional honors and awards include the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composition from the National Board of Review, and the Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He has also received ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement. Hans and his wife live in Los Angeles and he is the father of four children.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Dark Knight, The Lion King (1994), The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Hidden Figures, No Time to Die, Frost/Nixon, The Road to El Dorado- Composer
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Composer and conductor Alexandre Desplat, Oscar winner and seven-time Academy Award nominated, for his prolific filmography and his collaborations with Stephen Frears, Terrence Malick, Ang Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, Jacques Audiard, Wes Anderson, Roman Polanski, George Clooney or Matteo Garrone is one of the most worthy heirs of the French masters of film music.
Brought up in a cultural and musical mix thanks to his Greek mother and his French father who studied and got married in California, he grew up listening to French symphonists, Ravel or Debussy , world music and jazz.
He studied piano and trumpet before choosing the flute as the main instrument. As a free auditor in Claude Ballif's analysis class at the CNSM, he enriches his classical musical education by studying Brazilian and African music. He will record later with Carlinhos Brown or Ray Lema.
Passionate about film music, it's as much his musical sensitivity as his intimate approach to cinematographic language that will allow his privileged relationship with filmmakers. Inspired by the scores of Maurice Jarre, Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota or Georges Delerue, it is after hearing the score of John Williams for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) that he decides to compose exclusively for the big screen.
During the recording of his first feature film he meets violinist Dominique Lemonnier. This is the beginning of an exceptional artistic exchange as she becomes her favorite soloist, artistic director and wife. With his strong sense of interpretation, his creative spirit and his singular violin playing, Solré inspired Alexandre's compositions, influencing his music in depth, initiating a new way of writing for the strings in the cinema.
Collaborator of Jacques Audiard since his first film, he creates for his works strong and singular compositions and he won in 2005 for The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) the Silver Bear of the Berlinale, and his first Caesar. He works in France with Philippe de Broca and Francis Girod but Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) of Peter Webber, his 50th score for the film, he gets a first Golden Globe nomination and BAFTA and began his rise in Hollywood. Leading American career and European collaborations and remaining faithful to his directors, he composes among others Syriana (2005)'s scores of Stephen Gaghan, Birth (2004) of Jonathan Glazer, Coco Before Chanel (2009) by Anne Fontaine, Army of Crime (2009) by Robert Guédiguian, The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch (2008) by Jérôme Salle, Intimate Enemies (2007) or Hostage (2005) by Florent-Emilio Siri.
Prizes and collaborations with the greatest directors follow one another. In 2007, he received his first Oscar nomination for Stephen Frears's The Queen (2006) and won his first European Film Award. The same year, he won the Golden Globe, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and the World Soundtrack Award for John Curran's score The Painted Veil (2006), performed by pianist Láng Lang. He composed in 2008 for Lust, Caution (2007) by Ang Lee and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) by David Fincher which will earn him a second Oscar nomination and a fourth Golden Globes and BAFTA nomination.
With his score for The Ghost Writer (2010) by Roman Polanski, he won in 2010 a second César and a second European Film Award. The same year he wrote the music of The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) by Chris Weitz, whose album was a platinum record, and Tom Hooper's The King's Speech (2010) for which he won the BAFTA, the Grammy Award, and was nominated for the fourth time at the Oscars and for the fifth time at the Golden Globes.
In 2010-2011 he wrote the music of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) which became the third greatest success of all time. He composed in 2011 nine partitions, The Tree of Life (2011) of Terrence Malick, Carnage (2011) by Roman Polanski, Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) by George Clooney , which earned him another Oscar nomination, The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011) by Daniel Auteuil and The Ides of March (2011) by George Clooney.
In 2012 he worked with Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Matteo Garrone for Reality (2012), Gilles Bourdos for Renoir (2012), Jérôme Salle for Zulu (2013), George Clooney for Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and Jacques Audiard for Rust and Bone (2012) for which he won a third Cesar. For his score of Argo (2012) of Ben Affleck, Oscar for Best Picture, it is named for the sixth time BAFTA, and for the fifth time at the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
He signed in 2013 the partition The Monuments Men (2014) from George Clooney, Venus in Fur (2013) of Roman Polanski, and was appointed to the BAFTAs and the Oscars for Philomena (2013) of Stephen Frears.
In 2014 he composed the music Godzilla (2014) of Gareth Edwards, and receives exceptional fact, two Oscar nominations for The Imitation Game (2014) of Morten Tyldum and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by George Clooney, for which he won a BAFTA, Grammy and Oscar.
Member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, he became in 2014 the first composer President of the jury of the Venice Film Festival. Crowning long years of collaboration, he directed the London Symphony Orchestra in December 2014 for a concert of his works at the Barbican Theater in London.
In 2018, Alexandre Desplat received a second Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for The Shape of Water (2017) of Guillermo del Toro.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The King's Speech, Harry Potter 7-8, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water, The Imitation Game, Little Women (2019)- Music Department
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Thomas Newman is an American film score composer. He was born in Los Angeles. His father was notable film score composer Alfred Newman (1900-1970). The Newman family is of Russian-Jewish descent, and includes several other well-known musicians. Thomas' mother Martha Louis Montgomery (1920-2005) wanted her sons to have a musical education. Thomas attended regular lessons in violin as a child. An older Thomas received his musical education while attending the University of Southern California and Yale University. Thomas Newman graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1977, and a Master of Music in 1978.
Thomas originally composed music for theatrical productions in Broadway, working with his mentor Stephen Sondheim. His uncle Lionel Newman asked him to compose music for the television series "The Paper Chase" (1978-1979, 1986), which was Thomas' first credit in a television production.
In the 1980s, Thomas first worked in film. Composer John Williams, a close family friend, hired Thomas to work in the music department for space opera film "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Thomas' main work in the film was orchestrating the music in a scene where character Darth Vader dies. Afterwards, Thomas was approached by film producer Scott Rudin and hired to work as a film score composer in his own right. His first work in the field was the film score of romantic drama "Reckless" (1984).
While he worked regularly as a film score composer during the 1980s, Thomas reportedly felt he had to retrain himself for a hard and demanding job. It reportedly took him 8 years to not feel fraudulent in his efforts. In 1994, Thomas received his first Academy Award nominations, for the film scores of "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) and "Little Women" (1994). He lost the Award to rival composer Hans Zimmer, who had been nominated for the film score of the animated film "The Lion King" (1994).
Newman was an established and increasingly famous composer in the 1990s. He received further Academy Award nominations, although he never actually won. Among his more notable works was the film score of the drama film "American Beauty" (1999), which earned Thomas both a Grammy and a BAFTA award. Newman had a good working relationship with the film's director Sam Mendes. Mendes has kept hiring Thomas as the composer for most of his films. The main exception being the comedy-drama film "Away We Go" (2009), which did not have a film score.
In the 2000s, Thomas continued working in high-profile films, such as "Road to Perdition" (2002), "Finding Nemo" (2003), and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events". By 2006, he had been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, while never winning it. He started joking about his lack of victories in public.
In 2008, Thomas was nominated for two Academy Awards, for both the film score and an original song for the animated film "WALL-E" (2008). He won neither, though the hit song "Down to Earth" earned him a Grammy Award. He continues to work regularly in the 2010s. Among his more acclaimed works were the film scores for spy film "Skyfall" (2012) and period drama "Saving Mr. Banks" (2013). He has continued being nominated for Academy Awards. As of 2020, he has been nominated 15 times for the Academy Award. He is the most nominated living composer to have never actually won an Academy Award, tied with Alex North. He has won a total of 5 Grammy awards.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, Skyfall, Spectre, 1917, Bridge of Spies, Scent of a Woman, Finding Nemo; Six Feet Under- Composer
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Ramin Djawadi is an Iranian-German film score composer known for composing the hit HBO series Game of Thrones and the Marvel films Blade: Trinity, Iron Man and Eternals. He also composed Clash of the Titans, A Wrinkle in Time, Pacific Rim, Westworld, Gears of War 4 and 5, Medal of Honor, Open Season 1 and 2, Jack Ryan and Warcraft. He won two Emmy Awards for Game of Thrones.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Person of Interest- Music Department
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Charlie Clouser is a recording artist and composer for film and television who lives in Los Angeles.
The recipient of sixteen BMI Film & TV Music awards, Charlie has also received ten platinum and gold record awards for his work as a member of the band Nine Inch Nails, and as a producer, programmer, and remixer for David Bowie, Rob Zombie, Killing Joke, Helmet, Marilyn Manson, Jamiroquai, White Zombie, and many other artists.
His scores for all nine films in the "SAW" franchise combined brutal electronics and homemade bowed metal instruments with tortured orchestral washes and became landmarks in industrial-strength horror, and his "Hello Zepp" became a trademark of the franchise and a minor icon in the world of memorable horror themes. His scores for "Dead Silence", "Death Sentence", "The Stepfather", "Resident Evil:Extinction", "The Collection" and other films expanded upon these ideas and produced dozens of memorable themes, terrifying ambiences, and tension-filled rhythmic climaxes.
With over two hundred hours of television underscore to his credit, Charlie's scores to the CBS series "Numb3rs" and the NBC series "Las Vegas" spanned a wide range of styles, from ticking-clock hostage dramas and high-energy car chases to comedic casino capers and delicate heartbreak. More recently, his main title theme from the Fox/FX series "American Horror Story" was widely praised and helped to establish the creepy vibe of the very successful series, and his theme and underscore for the Fox series "Wayward Pines" provided another thick dose of unsettling atmospheres and powerful action-adventure themes.
As the keyboardist in the band Nine Inch Nails during most of the nineties, he toured the globe and contributed to their landmark albums "The Downward Spiral" and "The Fragile", as well as numerous singles, remixes, and other projects undertaken by the band during his tenure. During that era, he remixed and collaborated with artists from Atari Teenage Riot to White Zombie, and as an early adopter and long-time user of Moog and other modular synthesizers, he has appeared in documentaries about Dr. Robert Moog's life ("Moog") and about the recent resurgence of synthesizer culture ("I Dream of Wires").
Drawing from his thirty years of experience as a keyboardist, synthesist, and programmer, he brings to the table a huge palette of sounds and an unusual collection of instruments, including many one-of-a-kind electronic devices and hand-made sculptural metal instruments, all of which combine to create a huge range of emotional textures, from outright aggression to disorienting dissonance.Favorite soundtracks: Saw series; American Horror Story (theme), Las Vegas, NUMB3RS- Music Department
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James Newton Howard attended the University of Southern California's music school, but dropped out to tour with Elton John, and eventually compose music for film and television. He started with Head Office (1985) in 1985. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. He currently is a songwriter, record producer, conductor, keyboardist, and film composer.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Fantastic Beasts series, The Hunger Games series, Christopher Nolan's Batman series, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Sixth Sense, Atlantis: The Lost Empire- Music Department
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As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 52 Oscar nominations (five wins), twenty-odd Gold and Platinum Records, and a slew of Emmy (two wins), Golden Globe (three wins), Grammy (25 wins), National Board of Review (including a Career Achievement Award), Saturn (six wins), American Film Institute (including a Lifetime Achievement Award) and BAFTA (seven wins) citations, along with honorary doctorate degrees numbering in the teens, Williams is undoubtedly one of the most respected composers for Cinema. He's led countless national and international orchestras, most notably as the nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980-1993, helming three Pops tours of the US and Japan during his tenure. He currently serves as the Pop's Conductor Laureate. Also to his credit is a parallel career as an author of serious, and some not-so-serious, concert works - performed by the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich, André Previn, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Leonard Slatkin, James Ingram, Dale Clevenger, and Joshua Bell. Of particular interests are his Essay for Strings, a jazzy Prelude & Fugue, the multimedia presentation American Journey (aka The Unfinished Journey (1999)), a Sinfonietta for Winds, a song cycle featuring poems by Rita Dove, concerti for flute, violin, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, cello, bassoon and horn, fanfares for the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and a song co-written with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman for the Special Olympics! But such a list probably warrants a more detailed background...
Born in Flushing, New York on February 8, 1932, John Towner Williams discovered music almost immediately, due in no small measure to being the son of a percussionist for CBS Radio and the Raymond Scott Quintet. After moving to Los Angeles in 1948, the young pianist and leader of his own jazz band started experimenting with arranging tunes; at age 15, he determined he was going to become a concert pianist; at 19, he premiered his first original composition, a piano sonata.
He attended both UCLA and the Los Angeles City College, studying orchestration under MGM musical associate Robert Van Eps and being privately tutored by composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, until conducting for the first time during three years with the U.S. Air Force. His return to the states brought him to Julliard, where renowned piano pedagogue Madame Rosina Lhevinne helped Williams hone his performance skills. He played in jazz clubs to pay his way; still, she encouraged him to focus on composing. So it was back to L.A., with the future maestro ready to break into the Hollywood scene.
Williams found work with the Hollywood studios as a piano player, eventually accompanying such fare such as the TV series Peter Gunn (1958), South Pacific (1958), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), as well as forming a surprising friendship with Bernard Herrmann. At age 24, "Johnny Williams" became a staff arranger at Columbia and then at 20th Century-Fox, orchestrating for Alfred Newman and Lionel Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and other Golden Age notables. In the field of popular music, he performed and arranged for the likes of Vic Damone, Doris Day, and Mahalia Jackson... all while courting actress/singer Barbara Ruick, who became his wife until her death in 1974. John & Barbara had three children; their daughter is now a doctor, and their two sons, Joseph Williams and Mark Towner Williams, are rock musicians.
The orchestrating gigs led to serious composing jobs for television, notably Alcoa Premiere (1961), Checkmate (1960), Gilligan's Island (1964), Lost in Space (1965), Land of the Giants (1968), and his Emmy-winning scores for Heidi (1968) and Jane Eyre (1970). Daddy-O (1958) and Because They're Young (1960) brought his original music to the big theatres, but he was soon typecast doing comedies. His efforts in the genre helped guarantee his work on William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (1966), however, a major picture that immediately led to larger projects. Of course, his arrangements continued to garner attention, and he won his first Oscar for adapting Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
During the '70s, he was King of Disaster Scores with The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974). His psychological score for Images (1972) remains one of the most innovative works in soundtrack history. But his Americana - particularly The Reivers (1969) - is what caught the ear of director Steven Spielberg, then preparing for his first feature, The Sugarland Express (1974). When Spielberg reunited with Williams on Jaws (1975), they established themselves as a blockbuster team, the composer gained his first Academy Award for Original Score, and Spielberg promptly recommended Williams to a friend, George Lucas. In 1977, John Williams re-popularized the epic cinema sound of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman and other composers from the Hollywood Golden Age: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) became the best selling score-only soundtrack of all time, and spawned countless musical imitators. For the next five years, though the music in Hollywood changed, John Williams wrote big, brassy scores for big, brassy films - The Fury (1978), Superman (1978), 1941 (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ... An experiment during this period, Heartbeeps (1981), flopped. There was a long-term change of pace, nonetheless, as Williams fell in love with an interior designer and married once more.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) brought about his third Oscar, and The River (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Accidental Tourist (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) added variety to the 1980s, as he returned to television with work on Amazing Stories (1985) and themes for NBC, including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (1970). The '80s also brought the only exceptions to the composer's collaboration with Steven Spielberg - others scored both Spielberg's segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and The Color Purple (1985).
Intending to retire, the composer's output became sporadic during the 1990s, particularly after the exciting Jurassic Park (1993) and the masterful, Oscar-winning Schindler's List (1993). This lighter workload, coupled with a number of hilarious references on The Simpsons (1989) actually seemed to renew interest in his music. Two Home Alone films (1990, 1992), JFK (1991), Nixon (1995), Sleepers (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Angela's Ashes (1999), and a return to familiar territory with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) recalled his creative diversity of the '70s.
In this millennium, the artist shows no interest in slowing down. His relationships with Spielberg and Lucas continue in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), the remaining Star Wars prequels (2002, 2005), Minority Report (2002), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and a promised fourth Indiana Jones film. There is a more focused effort on concert works, as well, including a theme for the new Walt Disney Concert Hall and a rumored light opera. But one certain highlight is his musical magic for the world of Harry Potter (2001, 2002, 2004, etc.), which he also arranged into a concert suite geared toward teaching children about the symphony orchestra. His music remains on the whistling lips of people around the globe, in the concert halls, on the promenades, in album collections, sports arenas, and parades, and, this writer hopes, touching some place in ourselves. So keep those ears ready wherever you go, 'cause you will likely hear a bit of John Williams on your way.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Harry Potter series, Star Wars series, Jaws series, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Book Thief, Superman series, Jurassic Park series, Indiana Jones series- Music Department
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A great talent who started his career in Saturday Night Live (1975), where he worked with colleagues like Rob Reiner or Billy Crystal. He worked for some great stage values as Eric Clapton, Rosemary Clooney, Harry Connick Jr., Billy Crystal, Lauryn Hill, Jennifer Holliday, Nathan Lane, Jenifer Lewis, Darlene Love, Patti LuPone, Lonette McKee, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short or Barbra Streisand. His first important score for cinema is Misery (1990) (directed by Rob Reiner) and then he scored movies for Ron Underwood (City Slickers (1991), Hearts and Souls (1995)), Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Forget Paris (1995)), Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993)), Sam Weisman (George of the Jungle (1997)) or Rob Reiner (Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), A Few Good Men (1992), North (1994), The American President (1995)).
Shaiman has raised a unique place in film music industry, with a great talent for musicals and songs, getting great reviews with his acclaimed scores for The American President (1995), Patch Adams (1998), Simon Birch (1998) or South Park (1997) (with wonderful songs). Shaiman won Grammy and Emmy Awards and the Tony Award for his musical, "Hairspray". He has been nominated for the Oscars and still works in musical stages and cinema scores. Shaiman has also appeared as an actor in some movies, many times paying the piano.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Bucket List, Misery, Hairspray (2007), Patch Adams, Down with Love, George of the Jungle- Music Department
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Born on February 10, 1929, Jerry Goldsmith studied piano with Jakob Gimpel and composition, theory, and counterpoint with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also attended classes in film composition given by Miklós Rózsa at the Univeristy of Southern California. In 1950, he was employed as a clerk typist in the music department at CBS. There, he was given his first embryonic assignments as a composer for radio shows such as "Romance" and "CBS Radio Workshop". He wrote one score a week for these shows, which were performed live on transmission. He stayed with CBS until 1960, having already scored The Twilight Zone (1959). He was hired by Revue Studios to score their series Thriller (1960). It was here that he met the influential film composer Alfred Newman who hired Goldsmith to score the film Lonely Are the Brave (1962), his first major feature film score. An experimentalist, Goldsmith constantly pushed forward the bounds of film music: Planet of the Apes (1968) included horns blown without mouthpieces and a bass clarinetist fingering the notes but not blowing. He was unafraid to use the wide variety of electronic sounds and instruments which had become available, although he did not use them for their own sake.
He rose rapidly to the top of his profession in the early to mid-1960s, with scores such as Freud (1962), A Patch of Blue (1965) and The Sand Pebbles (1966). In fact, he received Oscar nominations for all three and another in the 1960s for Planet of the Apes (1968). From then onwards, his career and reputation was secure and he scored an astonishing variety of films during the next 30 years or so, from Patton (1970) to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and from Chinatown (1974) to The Boys from Brazil (1978). He received 17 Oscar nominations but won only once, for The Omen (1976) in 1977 (Goldsmith himself dismissed the thought of even getting a nomination for work on a "horror show"). He enjoyed giving concerts of his music and performed all over the world, notably in London, where he built up a strong relationship with London Symphony Orchestra.
Jerry Goldsmith died at age 75 on July 21, 2004 after a long battle with cancer.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Omen (1976), Psycho II, Mulan (1998), Hollow Man, Star Trek: The Next Generation (theme)- Composer
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In his ongoing, decades-long career as a composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. With a credit list of over 100 films Silvestri has composed some of the most recognizable and beloved themes in movie history. His efforts have been recognized with two Oscar nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, three Grammy awards, two Emmy awards, and numerous International Film Music Critics Awards, Saturn Awards, and Hollywood Music In Media Awards.
Born in New York City and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, Silvestri first dreamed of becoming a jazz guitar player. After spending two years at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, he hit the road as a performer and arranger. Landing in Hollywood at the age of 22, he found himself successfully composing the music for 1972's "The Doberman Gang" which established his place in the world of film composing.
The 1970s witnessed the rise of energetic synth-pop scores, establishing Silvestri as the action rhythmatist for TV's highway patrol hit "CHiPs." This action driven score caught the ear of a young filmmaker named Robert Zemeckis, whose hit film, 1984's "Romancing the Stone," was the perfect first date for the composer and director. It's success became the basis of a decades long collaboration that continues to this day. Their numerous collaborations have taken them through fascinating landscapes and stylistic variations, from the "Back to the Future" trilogy to the jazzy world of Toontown in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" the tension filled rooms of "What Lies Beneath" and "Death Becomes Her", to the cosmic wonder of "Contact;" the emotional isolation of "Castaway", to the magic of the "Polar Express". But perhaps no film collaboration defines their creative relationship better than Zemeckis' 1994 Best Picture winner, "Forrest Gump", for which Silvestri's gift for melodically beautiful themes earned him an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination and the affection of film music lovers everywhere. This 35 year, 21 film collaboration includes such recent films as "Flight", "Allied" and most recently "Welcome To Marwen". Zemeckis and Silvestri are currently working on "The Witches" based on Roald Dahl's 1973 classic book scheduled for release in October of 2020.
Though the Zemeckis/Silvestri collaboration is legendary, Silvestri has scored films of every imaginable style and genre. His energy has brought excitement and emotion to the hard-hitting orchestral scores for Steven Spielberg's "Ready Player One", James Cameron's "The Abyss" as well as "Predator" and "The Mummy Returns." Alan's diversity is on full display in family entertainment films such as "The Father of the Bride 1 and 2", "Parent Trap", "Stuart Little 1 and 2", Disney's "Lilo and Stitch", "The Croods" as well as "Night at the Museum 1, 2 and 3" while his passion for melody fuels the romantic emotion of films like "The Bodyguard" and "What Women Want".
Most recently, Alan has composed the music for Marvel's "Avengers: Endgame." The film is the culmination of a partnership with Marvel that began in 2011 with Alan's dynamically heroic score for "Captain America: The First Avenger" followed by "Avengers". Since 2011 Alan's collaboration with Marvel helped propel "The Avengers" and "Avengers: Infinity War" to spectacular world-wide success.
Silvestri's success has also crossed into the world of songwriting. His partnership with Six-Time Grammy Award winner Glen Ballard has produced hits such as the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated song "Believe" (Josh Groban) for "The Polar Express", "Butterfly Fly Away" (Miley Cyrus) for "Hannah Montana The Movie", "God Bless Us Everyone" (Andrea Bocelli) for "A Christmas Carol" and "A Hero Comes Home" (Idina Menzel) for "Beowulf".
Alan and his wife Sandra are long time residents of California's central coast. In 1998 the Silvestri family embarked on a new venture as the founders of Silvestri Vineyards. Their wines show that lovingly cultivated fruit has a music all its own. "There's something about the elemental side of winemaking that appeals to me," he says. "Both music making and wine making involve a magical blending of art and science. Just as each note brings it own voice to the melody, each vine brings it's own unique personality to the wine."
Their other great passion is the ongoing search for the cure to Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes. With the diagnosis of their son at two years of age (now 29) they continue to work the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and dream of the day this disease (and all of the suffering it brings to so many) will finally become a thing of the past.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Forrest Gump, The Polar Express, Mouse Hunt, The Odd Couple II, The Bodyguard, Contact, Lilo & Stitch- Composer
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Clinton Darryl Mansell is an English singer, musician and film composer known for his collaborations with Darren Aronofsky. He composed Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan, The Wrestler, Noah, Ghost in the Shell, Peacemaker, Doom Patrol, Loving Vincent, Mass Effect 3, Titans, World Traveler, Smokin' Aces, Doom, The Hole, and Definitely, Maybe.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Black Swan, Moon- Composer
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Murray Gold has been nominated for a BAFTA six times in the category Best Original Television Music, for Vanity Fair (1999), Queer as Folk (2000), Casanova (2006), Doctor Who (2008) and A Very English Scandal (2019). His score for the BAFTA winning film Kiss of Life was awarded the Mozart Prize of the 7th Art by a French jury at Aubagne in 2003. He has also been nominated five times by the Royal Television Society in categories relating to music for television, winning twice.
Murray has worked extensively with writer/director Russell T Davies on projects such as A Very English Scandal (starring Hugh Grant), Casanova (starring David Tennant), The Second Coming (starring Christopher Eccleston), Cucumber and Queer as Folk, series 1 and 2. He has also scored the C4 period drama The Devil's Whore, the BBC series The Musketeers, BBC Natural History series Life Story, the crime drama Scott & Bailey and wrote the theme tune for the Channel 4 hit series Shameless. More recently Murray scored Lookout Point's upcoming 8-part drama Gentleman Jack for BBC One and HBO.
Between 2005 and 2018, Murray served as musical director for the wildly successful re-imagining of the BBC's Doctor Who. In this capacity, he created a new arrangement of the show's theme (originally composed by Ron Grainer) and composed the score for 10 entire series. Murray also created, arranged and orchestrated three special live concerts for the music from Doctor Who. The first, Doctor Who: A Celebration, was played at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff in 2006; the second, the 2008 Doctor Who Prom, was part of the BBC Proms on 24 July 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall in London; the third, the 2010 Doctor Who Prom, was part of the BBC Proms hold in 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall again. In March 2010, Murray's Doctor Who soundtrack entered UK radio station Classic FM's Hall of Fame as that year's second highest new entry.
Gold has scored a number of British and American films, including Death at a Funeral directed by Frank Oz and Mischief Night, directed by Penny Woolcock. Other projects include 2006's film Alien Autopsy and the 2009 drama feature Veronika Decides to Die.
In 2001, his radio play Electricity was given the Imison Award - named after former BBC radio drama script editor Richard Imison - for best new. It subsequently transferred to the West Yorkshire Playhouse and was performed with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role. Others of his plays include 50 Revolutions performed by the Oxford Stage Company at the Whitehall Theatre, London in 2000 and Resolution at Battersea Arts Centre in 1994. Gold also wrote the radio play Kafka: The Musical, broadcast on Easter Sunday 2011 on BBC Radio 3, starring David Tennant. It won the 2013 Tinniswood Award for the Best Original Radio Drama.Favorite score/soundtrack: Doctor Who (2005-2017 themes, arrangements and compositions)- Composer
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Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Glass worked in his father's radio store and discovered music listening to the offbeat Western classical records customers didn't seem to want. He studied the violin and flute, and obtained early admission to the University of Chicago. After graduating in mathematics and philosophy, he went to New York's Juilliard school, drove a cab, and studied composition with Darius Milhaud and others.
At 23, he moved to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger, who taught almost all of the major Western classical composers of the 20th century. While there, he discovered Indian classical music while transcribing the works of Ravi Shankar into Western musical notation for a French filmmaker. A creative turning point, Glass researched non-Western music in India and parts of Africa, and applied the techniques to his own composition.
Back in the United States, Glass spent the late 1960s and early 1970s driving a taxi cab in New York and creating a major collection of new music. In 1976, his landmark opera "Einstein on the Beach" was staged by Robert Wilson to a baffling variety of reviews. His compositions were so avant-garde that he had to form the Philip Glass Ensemble to give them a venue for performance. Although called a minimalist by the Western classical mainstream, he denies this categorization. His major works include opera, theater pieces, dance, and song.
His work in film, beginning with Koyaanisqatsi (1982), gave filmmakers such as Godfrey Reggio and Errol Morris a new venue of expression through the documentary form. His many recordings have also widened his audience. He was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to compose "The Voyage" for the Columbus quinquacentennial in 1992. In 1996, he composed original music for the Atlanta Olympic Games, which, perhaps, made Glass almost mainstream. Glass remains one of the most important American composers. His music is distinctive, haunting, and evocative. Either performed by itself or in collaboration with other media, his compositions move the listener to unexplored places. More recently, a major reexamination of Glass's oeuvre has led him to be labeled the Last Romantic by the musical press.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Secret Window, The Hours, The Truman Show; Night Stalker (TV series theme)- Music Department
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Shirley Walker was born in Napa, California in 1945. She was educated at Pleasant Hill High School; attended San Francisco State College on piano scholarship; studied composition with Dr. Roger Nixon; and piano with Harald Logan of Berkeley, California. She was soloist with San Francisco Symphony while in high school; performed with various hotel, jazz & art bands in San Francisco, 1964 - 1967.
Industrial film and jingles work 1967 - 1978. Oakland Symphony Orchestra pianist 2 seasons, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra pianist 2 seasons. Member American Federation of Musicians (AFM) 1962 - present Member National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) 1978 - present; Member American Society of Composers Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) 1980 - present; Member Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) 1987 - present; Awards Committee 1987 - 1988; Member Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) 1985 - present; Vice President 1988 - 1992; Board of Directors 1986 - 1994; Working Conditions Committee 1987 - 1989; author SCL Working Conditions Questionnaire; author for The Score, SCL periodical: Packaging Scores, The Business of Quality Orchestration, New Low Budget Film Rate, Assumption Agreements and the Special Payments Fund. Member Recording Musicians Association (RMA) 1990 - present, Board of Directors 1994 - present; Member Broadcast Music Inc., (BMI) 1993 - present; Member Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) 1994 - present; Executive Music Branch Committee 1994 - present.
She married Don Walker in 1967 and they had two sons, Colin born 1970, Ian born 1972.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Willard (2003), The Final Destination series, Batman (1989); Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm- Music Department
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As Danny Elfman was growing up in the Los Angeles area, he was largely unaware of his talent for composing. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Danny and his older brother Richard Elfman started a musical troupe while in Paris; the group "Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo" was created for Richard's directorial debut, Forbidden Zone (1980) (now considered a cult classic by Elfman fans). The group's name went through many incarnations over the years, beginning with "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo" and eventually just Oingo Boingo. While continuing to compose eclectic, intelligent rock music for his L.A.-based band (some of which had been used in various film soundtracks, e.g. Weird Science (1985)), Danny formed a friendship with young director Tim Burton, who was then a fan of Oingo Boingo. Danny went on to score the soundtrack of Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Danny's first orchestral film score. The Elfman-Burton partnership continued (most notably through the hugely-successful "Batman" flicks) and opened doors of opportunity for Danny, who has been referred to as "Hollywood's hottest film composer".Favorite scores/soundtracks: Red Dragon, Spider-Man series, Batman (1989), Beetlejuice, Big Eyes, Dolores Claiborne, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Batman: The Animated Series (main and end themes), Tales from the Crypt (theme)- Composer
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Graeme Revell was born in New Zealand in 1955. He was graduated from The University of Auckland with degrees in economics and politics. He is a classically trained pianist and French horn player. Revell worked for as a regional planner in Australia and Indonesia and as an orderly in an Australian psychiatric hospital. Graeme Revell was a member of SPK, a 70s Industrial music group, for which he played keyboards and percussion. Their single "In Flagrante Delicto" was the basis for his Dead Calm score. This was his first score and won him an Australian Film Industry award. Since then he's done a number of major and minor film soundtracks including The Crow, The Crow: City Of Angels, The Craft, The Saint, and Chinese Box.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Freddy vs. Jason, Strange Days, Tank Girl, The Basketball Diaries, Psycho IV, Child's Play/Chucky series, Assault on Precinct 13 (2005); Gotham- Composer
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Ludwig Göransson is a Swedish composer known for composing Black Panther, the Creed films, Venom, Fruitvale Station, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Turning Red, New Girl, Community, Top Five, Central Intelligence, 30 Minutes or Less and Tenet. He had a son from Serena McKinney, who was married to him since 2018.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Oppenheimer, Black Panther series, Tenet; Community- Composer
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Robert Duncan is a four-time Emmy nominated television and film composer known for his work on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (UPN), 'Castle' (ABC), 'The Unit' (CBS), 'Last Resort' (ABC), Whispers and 'Terriers' (FX). Born and raised in Toronto, Robert attended a performing arts school and earned a bachelor's degree in music at York University. After honing his craft under the tutelage of two of Canada's top television composers, Robert moved to Los Angeles to participate in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop. Soon thereafter he began landing his own television scoring assignments. In 2006 he moved his studio and instrument collection into a historical rock 'n' roll facility formerly known as Devonshire Sound. In addition to the Emmy nominations, he is the recipient of a Hollywood Music in Media award and six ASCAP awards. He is represented by the Gorfaine/ Schwartz Agency.Favorite score/soundtrack: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)- Composer
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Christophe Beck was born in 1968 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a composer and actor, known for Frozen (2013), Ant-Man (2015) and The Muppets (2011).Favorite scores/soundtracks: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series), Angel; Pitch Perfect, Burlesque, Frozen 1 & 2, RED- Music Department
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John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky University and then USC film school in Los Angeles. He began making short films in 1962, and won an Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Subject in 1970, for The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970), which he made while at USC. Carpenter formed a band in the mid-1970s called The Coupe de Villes, which included future directors Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick Castle. Since the 1970s, he has had numerous roles in the film industry including writer, actor, composer, producer, and director. After directing Dark Star (1974), he has helmed both classic horror films like Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), and The Thing (1982), and noted sci-fi tales like Escape from New York (1981) and Starman (1984).Favorite themes/scores/soundtracks: Halloween series, The Thing (1982), Christine, Escape from L.A.- Composer
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Composer Christopher Young was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. After graduating from Hampshire College in Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music, Young went on to pursue his post-graduate studies at North Texas State University. After college Christopher moved to Los Angeles, California. He was originally a jazz drummer, but decided to become a film composer instead after listening to some of Bernard Herrmann's work. Moreover, Young not only has studied with noted composer David Raksin at UCLA Film School, but also teaches at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Christopher was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk Award at the 2008 BMI Film and TV Awards.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Hellraiser 1-2, Playing by Heart, Beauty Shop, The Exorcism of Emily Rose- Composer
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A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first film scores were relatively undistinguished, but he was hired by Leone for A Fistful of Dollars (1964) on the strength of some of his song arrangements. His score for that film, with its sparse arrangements, unorthodox instrumentation (bells, electric guitars, harmonicas, the distinctive twang of the jew's harp) and memorable tunes, revolutionized the way music would be used in Westerns, and it is hard to think of a post-Morricone Western score that doesn't in some way reflect his influence. Although his name will always be synonymous with the spaghetti Western, Morricone has also contributed to a huge range of other film genres: comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror films, romances, art movies, exploitation movies - making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He has written nearly 400 film scores, so a brief summary is impossible, but his most memorable work includes the Leone films, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966) , Roland Joffé's The Mission (1986), Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988), plus a rare example of sung opening credits for Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966).Favorite themes/scores/soundtracks: Django Unchained, The Thing (1982), The Best Offer, Bulworth- Composer
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A world renowned trumpeter/composer/band leader and Blue Note recording artist, Terence Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for motion pictures. Blanchard was born and raised in New Orleans where he studied with the Marsalis brothers at the famed New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. In 1980, he won a scholarship to Rutgers University and immediately began performing in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Two years later, he succeeded Wynton Marsalis in the legendary Jazz Messengers before forming his own influential groups. Blanchard originally began performing on Spike Lee's soundtracks, including "Mo Better Blues" in which he ghosted the trumpet for Denzel Washington. Blanchard lives in New Orleans with his wife, Robin, and his four children.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Talk to Me, The Princess and the Frog (featured trumpeter), Love & Basketball, Finding Forrester, Crooklyn- Composer
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Hildur Guðnadóttir was born on 4 September 1982 in Iceland. She is a composer, known for Joker (2019), Women Talking (2022) and Tár (2022). She is married to Sam Slater. They have one child.Favorite score/soundtracks: Joker, Prisoners (featured cellist), The Revenant (featured cellist), Arrival (featured cellist and halldorophonist)- Music Artist
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Pharrell Williams was born on 5 April 1973 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. He is a music artist and actor, known for Hidden Figures (2016), Despicable Me 2 (2013) and Despicable Me (2010). He has been married to Helen Lasichanh since 12 October 2013. They have four children.Favorite scores/soundtracks/singles: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Hidden Figures, Glee (featured songwriter), Austin Powers 3 (featured songwriter)- Music Artist
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Randy Newman is an American film composer and singer who is well-known for composing The Princess and the Frog, Meet the Parents and various Pixar films including the Toy Story, Monsters, Inc and Cars franchises as well as A Bug's Life. He wrote iconic songs such as "Short People", "You've Got A Friend in Me" and "We Belong Together". He won Best Original Song for Toy Story 3.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Princess and the Frog, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 1-3, Seabiscuit, Ragtime- Composer
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Cliff Martinez was born on 5 February 1954 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Only God Forgives (2013), The Neon Demon (2016) and Drive (2011).Favorite scores/soundtracks: Drive, Hotel Artemis, Contagion, Game Night- Music Department
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Argentine musician and leader of the now defunct bands "Arco Iris" and "Soluna", Gustavo Santaolalla was one of the references of his country's national music by the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. During the 70s he relocated to the United States, where he formed the band Wet Picnic, with Aníbal Kerpel, Aaurie Buhne and Robert Brill, with which he developed an intense activity in the city of Los Angeles. In 1982 he returned to Argentina to record a solo work - with a new sound- very influenced by the American pop trends of the time, called "Santaolalla", in which participated Argentine bassist Alfredo Toth (GIT band) and keyboardist Alejandro Lerner. In the music production area, his work was emphasized in "De Ushuaia a La Quiaca" ("From Ushuaia to La Quiaca") -another Argentine mythical musician León Gieco's project- following his same national folk line. Back in Los Angeles, produced records for "Café Tacuba" and "Maldita vecindad" among others, returning once more to Argentina in the middle of the '90 with a second solo work, "GAS" (his name's initials). His works in group production from the USA have turned Santaolalla into a prominent figure in that area, what gave him, besides, the chance to participate in big musical projects for cinema movies with successful results ("Amores perros", "21 Grams", "Diarios de motocicleta" -"The Motorcycle Diaries"), crowned with the Oscar award in March, 2006, by the music of the controversial film "Brokeback Mountain" and in 2007 for his friend Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Babel". This makes him the third composer to win in the Best Original Score two years in a row.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Brokeback Mountain, August: Osage County; The Last of Us (video game)- Composer
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Bear McCreary is a degreed graduate of the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music (in 'Composition and Recording Arts'). Bear McCreary was one of a small and select group of proteges of the late, many-honored film composer Elmer Bernstein. Although he is now firmly in the mainstream of film composition, many of McCreary's earliest soundtrack-music compositions were for independent motion picture productions.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Walking Dead (TV series); Godzilla: King of the Monsters, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Cloverfield Paradox, Happy Death Day- Composer
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Jared Emerson-Johnson is an award winning music composer, sound designer, voice director, and voice actor. His critically acclaimed work for games and other media has earned him several awards and has established him as a leading force in the world of interactive audio.
Until recently, his best known works were the scores for the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd seasons of Sam & Max graphic adventure games for Telltale Games (including deluxe 2-disc soundtrack albums), but his 2013 B.A.F.T.A. nominated score to The Walking Dead has eclipsed much of his earlier work and has shown him to be a composer of tremendous versatility.
Other recent scores are Back to the Future: The Game, Puzzle Agent 2, Jurassic Park: The Game, and the forthcoming score to The Wolf Among Us, based on the Fables comics.
In addition to his composition training, Jared is classically trained in conducting, violin, and voice. He holds a bachelor of arts degree (summa cum laude) from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
Jared also teaches musical theater and opera performance to young singers. He performs regularly with a number of bands and classical ensembles. For the past several years he has been a featured lecturer and panel participant at the Game Developers' Conference and Wondercon.
Jared lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Walking Dead (4-part video game)- Music Department
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The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and founding his own orchestra at the age of 20. After writing scores for Orson Welles's radio shows in the 1930s (including the notorious 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast), he was the obvious choice to score Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941), and, subsequently, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), although he removed his name from the latter after additional music was added without his (or Welles's) consent when the film was mutilated by a panic-stricken studio. Herrmann was a prolific film composer, producing some of his most memorable work for Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he wrote nine scores. A notorious perfectionist and demanding (he once said that most directors didn't have a clue about music, and he blithely ignored their instructions--like Hitchcock's suggestion that Psycho (1960) have a jazz score and no music in the shower scene). He ended his partnership with Hitchcock after the latter rejected his score for Torn Curtain (1966) on studio advice. He was also an early experimenter in the sounds used in film scores, most famously The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), scored for two theremins, pianos, and a horn section; and was a consultant on the electronic sounds created by Oskar Sala on the mixtrautonium for The Birds (1963). His last score was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) and died just hours after recording it. He also wrote an opera, "Wuthering Heights", and a cantata, "Moby Dick".Favorite themes/soundtracks: Psycho, Taxi Driver; The Twilight Zone- Music Department
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Composer Klaus Badelt started his musical career writing and producing music for dozens of highly successful movies and commercials in his native Germany. In 1998, Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer invited him to move his musical home to Media Ventures in Santa Monica, CA. Since then, Klaus has composed scores on his own film and television projects as well as collaborating with Zimmer and other composers.
Working with Zimmer, Badelt contributed music to the Oscar-nominated scores for Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998) and Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt (1998). Klaus collaborated with Zimmer on the music for Mission: Impossible II (2000) with producer Tom Cruise and director John Woo, Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001) and Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001). He also co-wrote the score to Sean Penn's The Pledge (2001) with Zimmer.
Klaus recently completed the scores for Werner Herzog's Invincible (2001) (Tim Roth). Dreamworks' The Time Machine (2002) (Guy Pearce and Jeremy Irons) and independent film Manfast (2003). Also in 2002, Badelt scored the independent feature Teknolust (2002) (Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Davies) followed by Miramax/Dimension Films' upcoming feature Equilibrium (2002) (Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs).
In summer of 2002, Badelt completed the music to Paramount's K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). The world-renowned Kirov Orchestra, under the baton of Valery Gergiev, was recorded in Washington, DC's Constitution Hall for the powerful score. Director Kathryn Bigelow's film tells the tale of nuclear calamity aboard a Russian sub, with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson portraying two conflicted Russian naval captains under deadly circumstances.
Badelt recently finished the score for The Recruit (2003), directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, and Bridget Moynahan. It is scheduled for release in January 2003. In October 2002, Klaus is writing the score for Basic (2003), directed by John McTiernan and starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.Favorite scores/soundtracks: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Shanghai (2010), 16 Blocks, The Road to El Dorado- Composer
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Jeff Russo was born on 31 August 1969. He is a composer and actor, known for Fargo (2014), Ripley (2024) and Lucy in the Sky (2019).Favorite scores/soundtracks: The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022), Star Trek: Picard; Submission- Composer
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Rolfe Kent was born in 1963 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He is a composer and producer, known for Up in the Air (2009), Sideways (2004) and Downsizing (2017).Favorite scores/soundtracks: Up in the Air, Labor Day, Freaky Friday (2003)- Composer
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Nicholas Hooper was born in the UK. He is known for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).Favorite scores: Harry Potter 5-6- Composer
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Jeff Grace is known for Sweet Tooth (2021), In the Shadow of the Moon (2019) and In a Valley of Violence (2016).Favorite scores/soundtracks: Cold in July, Stake Land