Top Movie Composers
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James Horner began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London, England, before moving to California in the 1970s. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he would go on to earn his master's degree at UCLA and teach music theory there. He later completed his Ph.D. in Music Composition and Theory at UCLA. Horner began scoring student films for the American Film Institute in the late 1970s, which paved the way for scoring assignments on a number of small-scale films. His first large, high-profile project was composing music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which would lead to numerous other film offers and opportunities to work with world-class performers such as the London Symphony Orchestra. With over 75 projects to his name, and work with people such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Oliver Stone, and Ron Howard, Horner firmly established himself as a strong voice in the world of film scoring. In addition, Horner composed a classical concert piece in the 1980s, called "Spectral Shimmers", which was world premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Horner passed away in a plane crash on June 22, 2015, two months short of his 62nd birthday.- 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.- Music Department
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Nick Glennie-Smith was born on 3 October 1951 in London, England, UK. He is a composer, known for The Rock (1996), We Were Soldiers (2002) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). He is married to Jan Glennie-Smith. They have four children.- Music Department
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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.- 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.- Composer
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Peter Bernstein was born on 10 April 1951 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Ghostbusters (1984), The Adam Project (2022) and Blues Brothers 2000 (1998).- Music Department
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Bill Conti was born on 13 April 1942 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for For Your Eyes Only (1981), Rocky (1976) and The Karate Kid Part II (1986). He is married to Shelby Cox. They have two children.- 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".- Music Department
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Emmy Award winning British composer Nicholas Pike ranges from conducting the London Symphony Orchestra's recording of his suite based on Athol Fugard's play Master Harold and the Boys to scoring Michael Jackson's epic videos Ghost and You Rock My World. His work in film spans from Disney's Blank Check, Captain Ron and the animated The Prince and the Pauper, to the darker world of Warner Brothers' Fear Dot Com! After studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he moved to New York where he composed and played for multiple bands featuring the likes of Bill Frisell, Billy Hart and Kenny Werner, culminating in the recording of his album Waterlilies with guitarist Bill Connors and percussion legend Nana Vasconcelos. As a film composer, Nicholas is known for his innovative use of instruments and sounds to create music - as in Stephen King's mini-series thriller The Shining, where he used both a wind harp and the bowing of a crystal wine glass to generate edgy, metallic sound elements to the score. After scoring Return To Me for director/actress/comedienne Bonnie Hunt, she hired Nicholas to lead the first-ever daytime talk show live band for NBC's The Bonnie Hunt Show for which he also composed the show's theme song. In the documentary world he has scored HBO's Baghdad ER and In Tahrir Square - for which he won the 2013 Outstanding Music and Sound Emmy. Other documentaries include last year's For The Love Of Spock and the Native American epic 100 Years for which he also composed and produced the Academy short listed song On Ghost Ridge, performed by Yuna. Other awards include the Elmer Bernstein Award for his score to Love Object at the Woodstock Film Festival and the Best Music Award from the Sitges Cinema Fantastic Festival for his score to Critters 2. Exhibiting a wide stylistic range and facile command of both orchestral and electronic composition, Nicholas Pike has become one of Hollywood's most sought-after composers.- Composer
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Dario Marianelli was born in Pisa and studied piano and composition in Florence and London. After a year as a postgraduate composer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he spent 3 years at the National Film and Television School, from which he graduated in 1997. Dario's film scores include 'Paddington 2' (2017), 'Darkest Hour' (2017), 'Kubo and the 'Two Strings' (2016) Everest (2015), 'The Boxtrolls' (2014), 'Anna Karenina' (2012), 'Jane Eyre' (2011), 'Salmon Fishing In The Yemen' (2011), 'Eat Pray Love' (2010), 'The Soloist' (2009), 'Agora' (2009), 'Atonement' (2007), 'V for Vendetta' (2006) and 'Pride and Prejudice' (2005). He has written orchestral music for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and the Britten-Pears Orchestra, as well as vocal music for the BBC Singers, incidental music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and several ballet scores. Dario won the Oscar, Golden Globe and Ivor Novello Award in the Best Original Score category for the award-winning Working Title film 'Atonement', for which he also won the World Soundtrack Award and was BAFTA nominated. He was also nominated for a Classical Brit Award in the Soundtrack Of The Year category for 'Atonement'. In 2006, Dario was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Score category for his music to Joe Wright's 'Pride & Prejudice'. This score won him the Classical Brit Award in the Soundtrack/ Musical Theatre Composer of The Year category and also earned him an Ivor Novello Award nomination. Dario's collaboration with Joe Wright on the film 'Anna Karenina' led to his nomination for an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe for Best Original Score, and in May 2013, he won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score for 'Anna Karenina'. In 2014 Dario composed the score for Laika animation 'The Boxtrolls', which was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award. He has recently completed work on the score to his second Laika animation, 'Kubo and the Two Strings', for which he won an Ivor Novello Award, and also worked on his fifth film collaboration with director Asif Kapadia on live action feature 'Ali and Nino'.
During 2014 Dario's 'Voyager' Violin Concerto also had its world premiere in Brisbane, Australia, performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra as part of a spectacular event combining science, music, voice, and film titled 'Journey Through The Cosmos'. The piece was featured alongside a lecture given by Professor Brian Cox and has since gone on to be performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding and featuring highly acclaimed violinist Jack Liebeck.
In 2017, Dario continued his working relationship with Joe Wright on 'Darkest Hour' and also scoring Paul King's 'Paddington 2'. Dario was commissioned by The Royal Opera House to compose their new ballet, 'The Unknown Soldier', which premiered in November 2018. He also worked with Travis Knight, composing the score for the latest film in the Transformers film series, 'Bumblebee.' Dario collaborated with Matteo Garrone to score the Italian feature film 'Pinocchio'. Most recently Dario composed the original score for 'A Boy Called Christmas', directed by Gil Kenan, which was released in late 2021.- Music Department
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Bruce Broughton composes in almost every medium, from theatrical motion pictures and television to computer games, in styles ranging from large symphonic settings ("Silverado") to contemporary electronic scores (the recently Emmy-nominated "The Dive from Clausen's Pier"). Broughton has written the scores for such major motion pictures as "Tombstone," "Lost In Space," "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Bambi II." With 23 nominations, he has received the Emmy award a record ten times, most recently for his score to the HBO movie, "Warm Springs." His television credits include the main title themes for "Jag" and Steven Spielberg's "Tiny Toon Adventures," as well as the scores for countless television series ("Dallas," "Quincy," "Hawaii Five-O") and movies and mini-series ("The Blue and the Gray," True Women"). His score for "Heart of Darkness" was the first orchestral score composed for a CD-ROM game. Broughton's concert music includes numerous works for orchestra and chamber groups, which have been performed by ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He is a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a board member of ASCAP and a past president of The Society of Composers and Lyricists. He has lectured in music composition at UCLA and has taught film composition in the Advanced Film Music Studies program at USC.- Composer
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Robert Folk is a graduate and former faculty member of the famed Juilliard School in New York City. Since completing his Doctorate, Mr. Folk has composed and conducted the musical scores for over 95 feature films. His extensive credits include Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Nothing To Lose (1997), Tremors (1990), The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter (1990), Toy Soldiers (1991), Police Academy (1984), Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002), Boat Trip (2002), Back in The Day (2005), American Pie Presents Band Camp (2005), Van Wilder 2 (2006), Vivaldi (2008), There Be Dragons (2011), Elephant White (2011), Underground (2011), The Secret Village (2013) and Silent Life (2014). Mr. Folk has also composed and conducted numerous concert works including Symphonic, Vocal and Chamber music compositions. His Ballet "To Dream Of Roses," composed for the Osaka Worlds Fair, was recorded by London Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Folk is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers. He is a prolific songwriter & producer, and has conducted many prominent orchestras including; The London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Berlin Radio Orchestra, The Munich Symphony, The Dublin Symphony Orchestra, The Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and the London Sinfonia.- Music Department
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Elliot Goldenthal is an Academy Award-winning composer best known for his original music scores for such films as Frida (2002) and Across the Universe (2007), among his other works.
He was born on May 2, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a house-painter, and his mother was a seamstress. Young Goldenthal was fond of music and theatre, he played with his school rock band during the 1960s. In 1968, he staged his first ballet at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, from which he graduated in 1971. He attended the Manhattan School of Music, studied under Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and earned his MA in composition.
Among Goldenthal's most notable works are his original music scores for numerous films, such as Julie Taymor's Frida (2002), Clark Johnson's S.W.A.T. (2003), Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997). Goldenthal also has been collaborating with director Neil Jordan on five films, among those are Michael Collins (1996), and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), for which he earned two Oscar nominations.
Since the early 1980s, Elliot Goldenthal has been working together with Julie Taymor. Their partnership in film and in life has been one of the most rewarding in film business; the couple made such acclaimed films as Titus (1999), Frida (2002) and Across the Universe (2007), among their other works, earning numerous awards and nominations for their highly innovative creativity.- Composer
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Born in Pasadena, California, Richard Bellis began his show business career as a child actor. He worked in movies and television until the age of 12, then turned all his attentions toward music and left acting behind. Within months of graduating from high school, he became musical director for the touring version of the popular rock-and-roll showcase Shindig! (1964). This was followed by a stint with Johnny Mathis and ten years of arranging and conducting for several Las Vegas headliners. In 1976 Bellis left the road and began scoring films on a full-time basis. He won an Emmy for the score of Stephen King's It (1990) and Emmy nominations for HBO's Doublecrossed (1991) and ABC's Double, Double Toil and Trouble (1993). In addition to his film scoring career, Bellis is past president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists; served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for 17 years, where he lectured in the Scoring for Television and Motion Pictures program; and acts as host/mentor for ASCAP's annual Film Scoring Workshop.- 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.- Composer
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Trevor Rabin was born in South Africa in 1954. He began playing guitar at the age of 12 after having had piano lessons since he was a toddler. In 1972 he formed the band Rabbit becoming the most successful rock act ever to emerge from South Africa. Rabin left Rabbit to pursue a solo career in London and released three solo albums.
Rabin moved to Los Angeles in 1982. Here he became a member of the newly reformed progressive art/rock group Yes for the groundbreaking 90125 album as a guitarist, keyboardist, singer, songwriter, producer and recording engineer. He penned the majority of the songs on 90125 as well as Big Generator and Talk, before leaving Yes in 1994 to pursue a career as a film composer.
Rabin has scored three dozen films which include Con Air, Homegrown, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Jack Frost, Deep Blue Sea, Gone in 60 Seconds, Remember the Titans, The 6th Day, The Banger Sisters, Kangaroo Jack, Bad Boys 2, The Great Raid, Exorcist: The Beginning, National Treasure, Coach Carter, Snakes On A Plane, The Guardian, and Flyboys.
Along with many Grammy nominations and one win, Mr. Rabin also has received nine BMI film score awards, and has received a lifetime achievement award from the Temecula Film Festival.- Music Department
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Howard Shore is a Canadian composer, born in Toronto. He was born in a Jewish family. He started studying music when 8-years-old, and played as a member of bands by the time he was 13-years-old. He was interested in a professional career in music as a teenager. He studied music at the Berklee College of Music, a college of contemporary music located in Boston.
For a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Shore was a member of Lighthouse, a jazz fusion band. In the 1970s, Shore mainly composed music for theatrical performances and a few television shows. His most notable work was composing the music for the one-man-act show of stage magician Doug Henning. He also served as a musical director in then-new television show "Saturday Night Live" (1975-). He was hired by the show's producer Lorne Michaels, who was a close friend of Shore since their teen years.
In 1978, Shore started his career as a film score composer, with scoring the B-movie " I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses" (1978). His next film score was composed for the horror film "The Brood" (1979). Shore had a good working relationship with the film's director David Cronenberg. Cronenberg would continue to use Shore as the composer of most of his films, with the exception of "The Dead Zone" (1983).
In the 1980s, Shore also composed the film scores of works by other directors, such as "After Hours" (1985) by Martin Scorsese, and "Big" (1988) by Penny Marshall. He received more acclaim for composing the film score for "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), a major hit of its era. Shore was nominated for a BAFTA award for this film score.
By the 1990s, Shore was an established composer of high repute and worked in an ever increasing number of films. Among his better known works were the film scores for comedy film "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993) and crime thriller "Seven" (1995). Shore received even more critical acclaim in the 2000s, when he composed the film score for fantasy film "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001). He won an Academy Award and a Grammy for the film score, and received nominations for a BAFTA award and a Golden Globe.
Shore continued his career with the film scores of acclaimed films "Gangs of New York" (2002), "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002), and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). He received his second Academy Award for the film score of "The Return of the King", and his third Academy Award as the composer of hit song "Into the West". He won several other major awards for these film scores. His film scores for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are considered the most famous and successful works of his career.
For the rest of the 2000s, Shore closely collaborated with director Martin Scorsese. Shore won a Golden Globe for the film score of Scorsese's "The Aviator" (2004). In the 2010s, Shore continues to work regularly, mostly known for composing film scores for works by directors David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Jackson. He was the main composer for "The Hobbit" trilogy by Peter Jackson, and the fantasy film "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (2010) by David Slade.- Composer
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It's anything but typical for the realms of film or music... Tyler Bates regularly transitions from scoring some of the world's biggest film and television franchises, such as Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick, to rocking massive audiences with Marilyn Manson and back to the studio again writing and producing. The musical voice of this highly sought-after composer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer can be heard in every corner of pop culture-from video games to the Disney California Adventure attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission Breakout! In 2004, he made waves by creating the menacing audio backdrop for the popular Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead reboot followed by his soundtrack for the filmmaker's 300, which remains one of the 21st century's biggest-selling score albums. His oeuvre expanded to include Watchmen and Sucker Punch both helmed by Snyder, several collaborations with Rob Zombie-including The Devil's Rejects, Halloween, and Halloween II-and Killer Joe directed by Academy Award® winner William Friedkin. Beyond composing for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & Vol2., he produced a fan favorite "disco version" of his "Guardians of the Galaxy" main theme, titled "Guardians Inferno," co-written with director and long-time collaborator, James Gunn [feat. David Hasselhoff] and performed the second installment's score at the 2017 MOSMA Festival in Spain. John Wick: Chapter 2 represents the nexus of his work as a composer, performer, and songwriter. He penned the closing credits tune "A Job To Do" alongside legendary Alice In Chains guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and performed on-screen during the climactic "Rock Opera" sequence. Elsewhere, his sonic presence reverberates throughout Showtime's Californication, Audience Network's Kingdom, WGN America's Salem, and more as well as video games such as Killzone: Shadow Fall, God of War: Ascension, Army of Two 40th Day, and China's massive Crossfire. He also wrote the theme for his favorite NFL team the Tennessee Titans, and performed the "Star-Spangled Banner" solo in the rain during a 2015 game. Bates co-wrote and produced Manson's 2015 epic, The Pale Emperor. A runaway success, it crashed the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 at #6 and earned widespread critical acclaim with Rolling Stone hailing it as the "#1 Metal Album of 2015." As the band's lead guitarist, he dedicated over a year to touring in support of the album on the headline Hell Not Hallelujah Tour, an arena run with Slipknot, and various festivals worldwide. In 2017, he once again joined forces in the studio with Manson on the follow-up Heaven Upside Down and returns to the road for a string of high-profile touring. In 2017, he scored the blockbuster Atomic Blonde, starring Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron in addition to producing Health's cover of "Blue Monday" and re-invigorating Ministry's "Stigmata" with Manson, for two of the film's key sequences. Bates' voice also permeates NETFLIX's upcoming The Punisher. With several exciting projects slated for 2018 including Deadpool 2, The Spy Who Dumped Me & the return of The Punisher for season 2. Tyler Bates will undoubtedly continue to redefine what a composer is.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
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.