Neal Acree
Born: 11 July 1974, Tarzana, California.
Background: Exciting up-and-coming American composer who has built up a considerable reputation in the action/B-movie world. played guitar as a child and, after switching his focus from art to music, began studying ethnic music, electronic music and music technology, including spending some time in England. A long-time film music fan who cites Elliot Goldenthal, James Horner, John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith as his career influences, he began his career doing "cartage", delivering music equipment for scoring sessions, before going on to work variously as an orchestrator, music editor, copyist, programmer and assistant to the great and the good in film music, including Marc Shaiman and Richard Marvin. When Joel Goldsmith, son of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, took Acree on as his technical assistant in the late 1990s, it wasn’t long before he was contributing additional music to projects such as the TV series “Stargate SG-1” and the TNT mini-series “Witchblade”. Since then, Acree has gone on to score 20 or so feature films, most of which were directed by cult B-movie legend Jim Wynorski, starred fading action stars such as Treat Williams and Michael Dudikoff, went straight-to-video or premiered on the Sci-Fi channel, and were (sadly) not very good. However, time after time, Acree’s music has been cited as being the standout element of each project, and it cannot be long before this exceptionally talented young composer gets his shot at the big time.
Highlight Scores: Witchblade (TV), Militia, Crash Point Zero, Critical Mass, Venomous, They Crawl, Ablaze, Gale Force, Project Viper, Helen of Troy (TV), Curse of the Komodo, Deadly Swarm, Lost Treasure, Belle, Gargoyle: Wings of Darkness, E5, Crash Landing, 7 Seconds
Links: Official Site
Barry Adamson
Born: 1 June 1958, Manchester, England.
Background: Acclaimed musician and songwriter who was an established member of the Manchester rock and jazz scene in the late 1970s and early 80s. Was the founder member, lead songwriter and bass player of Magazine, and was responsible for several of their acclaimed albums, notably "The Correct Use of Soap" (1980). Formed The Bad Seeds in 1981 with Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Blixa Bargeld, and during his time worked on the albums "From Her to Eternity" (1984), "The Firstborn Is Dead" (1985), "Kicking Against The Pricks" (1986) and "Your Funeral...My Trial" (1986) before striking out on his own. Adamson has released many albums as a solo artist, including the acclaimed "Moss Side Story" (1989), "Oedipus Schmoedipus" (1996), “As Above So Below” (1998) and “The Murky World of Barry Adamson” (1999), and often describes his solo albums as 'soundtracks without movies' or 'cinematic funk'. His film music work has been limited to small art-house movies and collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti in films by director David Lynch.
Highlight Scores: Delusion, Lost Highway, The Escort, Out of Depth.
Links: Official Site [WARNING! FLASH HEAVY!]
Richard Addinsell
Born: 13 January 1904, London, England. Died: 15 November 1977.
Background: Real name Frederick Chipperfield. British composer most famous for his composition "Warsaw Concerto", written originally for the little-seen 1941 film “Dangerous Moonlight”. Initially studied law at Oxford University, but switched to studying music in 1929. Attended the Royal College of Music in London, and studied in both Berlin and Vienna before making his first appearances as an accompanist for singer Joyce Grenfell. Made his film music debut in 1936, and scored over 40 films during a thirty-year career, until his retirement in 1965. Served as an RAF bomber command navigator during WWII. Addinsell also composed the music for the 1932 Broadway adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland", which was revived on stage in 1947, and subsequently given two different television productions, in 1955, and in 1983. Died in 1977, aged 73.
Highlight Scores: Fire Over England, South Riding, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Gaslight, Dangerous Moonlight, Scrooge, Beau Brummell, The Admirable Crichton.
John Addison
Born: 16 March 1920, Surrey, England. Died: 7 December 1998.
Background: Respected British composer who studied at the Royal College of Music, and first emerged into the music scene in London’s West End. Was prolific in theatre and in the classical arena in England during the 1940s and 50s, before making his film music debut - credited as Jock Addison - in 1947 arranging the songs for the popular Richard Attenborough film "Brighton Rock". Enjoyed a great deal of success on both sides of the Atlantic, winning an Oscar in 1963 and being nominated another in 1973, and enjoying continued success right through the 1980s through his connection with the hit detective TV series "Murder She Wrote", until his retirement in 1992. Died of a stroke aged 78 at his home in rural Vermont.
Highlight Scores: Touch and Go, Cockleshell Heroes, Lucky Jim, Look Back in Anger, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Tom Jones, Torn Curtain, Sleuth, The Seven Per Cent Solution, The Charge of the Light Brigade, A Bridge Too Far, Murder She Wrote (TV).
Awards: Academy Award for Best Original Score for "Tom Jones" (1964), nomination for "Sleuth" (1973). BAFTA Award for "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), nomination for "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1968). Emmy for "Murder She Wrote" (1985).
Larry Adler
Born: 10 February 1914, Baltimore, Maryland. Died: 6 August 2001.
Background: Virtuoso harmonica (mouth organ) player who took up the instrument to follow in the footsteps of his equally talented brother. Began playing in harmonica bands in the 1920s, eventually becoming a featured soloist on records by Ruth Etting, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and with many respected classical orchestras. By the 1930s, composers were writing orchestral pieces around Larry Adler’s harmonica playing, notably Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Benjamin and Darius Milhaud. Maurice Ravel left specific instructions in his will that Larry Adler would be able to perform his "Bolero" without having to pay a royalty. Made his film music debut in 1953, writing music for the British comedy “Genevieve”, but by that time he had been blacklisted due to his opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and was not allowed to have his name read at the Academy Awards ceremony when his work was Oscar nominated. Adler wrote a dozen more scores, and continued to be an active and in-demand solo artist, right up to his death of cancer at the age of 87 in 2001.
Highlight Scores: Genevieve, The Hook King & Country, A High Wind in Jamaica.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Dramatic/Comedy Score for "Genevieve" (1953).
Mark Adler
Born:
Background: Prodigiously talented filmmaker, animator and musician who, at age 16, created an award-winning animated short which the New York Museum of Modern Art acquired for its permanent archive collection. Was the recipient of an American Film Institute production grant for an original screenplay, but having studied the piano for fifteen years, eventually chose a career in music. He was educated at UCLA, wrote music for documentaries in the 1980s while based in San Francisco, was a keyboard player with the Heart of Gold band, arranged source music for director Philip Kaufman, and worked as a music editor for directors Milos Forman, David Lynch, and Francis Ford Coppola, before switching to composing full time in the early 1990s. Since then, Adler has worked steadily in the lower echelons of the film music world, winning an Emmy in 1999, and collaborating with directors such as Wayne Wang, Tobe Hooper and Richard Pearce. He has also continued to write extensively for documentaries, and includes many commissions for National Geographic TV in his filmography.
Highlight Scores: Eat a Bowl of Tea, Picture Bride, Thicker than Blood, The Rat Pack, Focus, Leo.
Awards: Emmy for "The Rat Pack" in 1999.
Links: Official Site
Peter Herman Adler
Born: 2 December 1899, Jablonec, Czechoslovakia. Died: 2 October 1990.
Background: Czech-born composer and conductor who had a distinguished musical career that spanned two continents and six decades and was best known as a pioneer director of opera on television in the United States. Studied composition and conducting at the Prague Conservatory with Alexander Zemlinsky, subsequently becoming music director of the Bremen Staatsoper (1929-32) and the Ukrainian State Philharmonia in Kiev (1932-7). Emigrated to the USA in 1939 and subsequently worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, and the NBC-TV Opera Company, where he worked with Arturo Toscanini. Adler was director of the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School from 1973 to 1981, and during his tenure was recognised for staging many lavish opera works for television, notably Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” and “Maria Golovin”, Dello Joio’s “The Trial at Rouen” and Martinu’s “The Marriage”. Adler only worked on one cinematic film in his life – the 1951 Richard Thorpe/Mario Lanza film “The Great Caruso”, for which he received an Oscar nomination. Died in 1990, aged 91.
Highlight Scores: The Great Caruso.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "The Great Caruso" (1951).
Damon Albarn
Born: 26 March 1968, London, England.
Background: Tabloid superstar and beloved part of the 1990s “Britpop” movement, Albarn is most famous for being the face of the band Blur. Classically trained in the violin and piano as a child, Albarn originally studied to be an actor in London, but found greater satisfaction in music. Along with his childhood friend Graham Coxon, Albarn was a member of several unsuccessful bands in the 1980s, until forming Blur in the early 1990s, and achieving massive international success through songs such as “Parklife”, "Country House", "Girls and Boys" and "Song 2". Began dabbling in film in the 1990s, initially assisting Michael Nyman on “Ravenous” (1999), before making his solo debut the following year. Albarn is also the brains behind the alternative animated urban rock band Gorillaz, who had an international hit in 2001 with the song “Clint Eastwood”.
Highlight Scores: Ravenous (with Michael Nyman), Ordinary Decent Criminal, 101 Reykjavik.
Links: Blur Official Site [WARNING! FLASH HEAVY!]
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Born: 13 October 1948, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Died: 16 August 1997.
Background: Khan was arguably the world's finest exponent of traditional Qawwali music, the spiritual musical language of Islam, the origins of which can be traced back over seven hundred years to ancient Persia. Despite being revered in his homeland for over 20 years, Khan did not achieve international crossover success until the 1990s, mainly through his collaborations with daring artists such as Peter Gabriel, Eddie Vedder and Michael Brook. Was finally beginning something of a world music fan base, both through his collaborations with other artists and his work on films such as “Bandit Queen” and “Dead Man Walking”, when he died of a heart attack while touring in London in 1997. His nephew, Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is carrying on the family tradition, having recently worked with James Horner on "The Four Feathers".
Highlight Scores: The Last Temptation of Christ, Bandit Queen, Dead Man Walking, The Ghost and the Darkness.
Eric Allaman
Born: 16 December 1964, Springfield, Missouri.
Background: Studied piano as a child, and graduated from UCLA Bachelors Degree in Music and Theater. Spent the early part of his career in Europe, undertaking further studies in Paris, playing piano in cabarets in Berlin, and eventually undertaking the first of several collaborations with Tangerine Dream on Ridley Scott's "Legend", as well as re-scoring of Eisenstein's 1925 epic "Battleship Potemkin" in 1986. Buoyed by this success, he returned to Los Angeles and scored his first film in 1988. Since then, Allaman has enjoyed a modicum of success writing for small features and TV movies, as well as episodes of popular TV series such as "Mike Hammer" and "High Tide". In addition to his film music work, Allaman has also written two musicals, the incidental music to several plays, and two operas, "Voice from the Cellar" and "Battleship Potemkin".
Highlight Scores: Miracle Beach, True Heart, One Kill, Luminarias, Elvira's Haunted Hills, This Time Around, Beautiful Girl, Latter Days.
Links: Official Site.
John Altman
Born: 5 December 1949, London, England.
Background: A self-taught composer, arranger and saxophonist from a musical family, John Altman is something of a musical renaissance man who can write music in any number of styles, and play almost any instrument put in front of him. Was one of the most sought-after arrangers and performers in London during the 1970s, where he specialised in big-band, jazz and rock arrangements, and performed on stage with dozens groups - from punk to rock to folk to jazz. He became involved in film and TV through his association with Monty Python crowd in the late 1970s, and subsequently performing with the spin-off group The Rutles and composer Neil Innes. Altman emerged into film on the world stage during the late 1980s, having worked extensively with director Peter Chelsom on films such as “Hear My Song” (1991) and “Funny Bones” (1995). Since then, Altman has written music for a number of internationally successful films, winning an Emmy in 2001. He also arranged all the on-screen orchestral string quarter performances for James Cameron's "Titanic".
Highlight Scores: Hear My Song, Camilla, Funny Bones, Little Voice, RKO 281, Vendetta, Shall We Dance?.
Awards: BAFTA for "Hear My Song" in 1989, Emmy for "RKO 281" in 2001.
William Alwyn
Born: 7 November 1905, Northampton, England. Died: 12 September 1985.
Background: Studied composition and flute at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and was appointed Professor of Composition aged just 21. Made his film music debut at early as 1937, and was in constant employment throughout the 1940s and 50s, working on a number of respected films and writing well-loved scores. Composed his last film score in 1963, and then, along with fellow composers Clifton Parker and Franz Reisenstein, publicly and controversially resigned from film scoring in protest at the exorbitant percentage of royalties being taken by music publishers. Nevertheless, Alwyn remained active, writing original classical music almost until his 80th year. Among his none-film works were five symphonies, concertante works for violin, viola, oboe, cor anglais, and piano, a divertimento for solo flute, many song cycles, and two large-scale operas, "The Libertine" and "Miss Julie". Was also heavily involved in musical education and politics, having been instrumental in the early days of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain, the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, the Society for the Promotion of New Music, and the Performing Right Society. Was married to fellow composer Doreen Carwithen until his death at his home in Suffolk in 1985 aged 79.
Highlight Scores: The Winslow Boy, The Golden Salamander, The Crimson Pirate, The Master of Ballantrae, Svengali, Swiss Family Robinson.
Alejandro Amenábar
Born: 31 March 1972, Santiago, Chile.
Background: Born in Chile, young Amenábar moved with his family back to Spain when he was just a year year old. Developed a passion for cinema as a child and, following the completion of his studies in Madrid, wrote and directed several acclaimed short films. Made his feature debut with "Tesis" in 1996, and went on to achieve a great deal of international success through his films "Abre Los Ojos" (1997, re-made in America as “Vanilla Sky”) and the Nicole Kidman thriller "The Others" (2001). Despite having no formal musical training, Amenábar is one of a small number of directors who write film scores movies – as well as his own films, Amenábar has also written music for Jose Luis Cuerda’s “Butterfly Tongues” (1999) and Mateo Gil’s “Nadie” (1999). Amenábar attributes his musical knowledge and talent to his vast soundtrack collection.
Highlight Scores: Tesis, La Lengua de las Mariposas, Abre Los Ojos, The Others, The Sea Inside.
Links: Official Site (in Spanish).

Daniele Amfitheatrof
Born: 29 October 1901, St. Petersburg, Russia. Died: 7 June 1983.
Background: Studied with Ottorino Respighi at the Conservatory in Rome, and at the Pontifical Academy of Sacred Music in the Vatican. Was music director of the Italian Broadcasting Corporation before emigrating to the USA in 1937 to write music for film. Much of his early scores were written uncredited, or culled from studio stock music, but he nevertheless was responsible for many great works, including the popular success of his main title march from "Major Dundee". Was Oscar-nominated twice in a career which encompassed almost 200 scores, and which lasted until his retirement in 1966. Also wrote several symphonic works, including "Poem of the Sea"; "The Miracle of the Roses"; "Prelude to a Requiem Mass"; "American Panorama" and a piano concerto. Died at his home in Rome in 1983, aged 81.
Highlight Scores: Lassie Come Home, Guest Wife, The Virginian, Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Naked Jungle, Song of the South, The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, Major Dundee.
Awards: Oscar nominations for "Guest Wife" (1946) and "Song of the South" (1948).
David Amram
Born: 17 November 1930, New York, New York.
Background: Highly respected "renaissance man" of American music, whose work lies predominantly in the field of jazz and world music. Made his film music debut in 1958 and remains active today, albeit with a tiny output in terms of quantity - he has scored just five films since 1980. However, away from the film world, Amram has written over 100 orchestral and chamber works, including two operas and several theatre scores, as well enjoying collaborations with such notables as Leonard Bernstein, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Mingus and Tito Puente. Was the first composer-in-residence with the New York Philharmonic, from 1966-67. Is also the author of several books on music and music history, and several memoirs based on his life.
Highlight Scores: Splendor in the Grass, The Manchurian Candidate, The Arrangement, The Source.
Links: David Amram: At Home Around the World
Brendan Anderson
Born: 1980, Madison Lake, Minnesota.
Background: Talented composer from Wisconsin who cites David Arnold as a career inspiration. Studied at Augsburg College in Minneapolis with Carol Barnett, where he won the Hognander Family Music Scholarship (the highest musical honour the institution has to offer) and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition. Moved to Los Angeles to study in 2003, and has since spent his non-study time writing music for short films, and “assisting” composers such as Jim Dooley, Michael Giacchino and Ron Jones. Among Anderson’s numerous works are “I Believe”, a piece for concert band, choir and pipe organ, the text of which is from the Apostle's Creed. Anderson has also written music for numerous state-wide TV ads and documentaries, including music for political broadcasts on behalf of the Governor of Minnesota. Prior to his film music career, Anderson was the head arranger of the "Camp Cruisers", the house band at Mall of America's Camp Snoopy, the largest indoor theme park in the largest shopping centre in the USA, in Bloomington, Minnesota!
Highlight Scores: Man vs Apple, Heir to the Cup, The Way It Was Intended, Thief in the Night, Dishes Dirt and Dessert (all short films).
Links: Official Site
Chris Anderson
Born:
Background: Eclectic composer and arranger, who studied music at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, before graduating from the USC Film Scoring programme, where he studied under David Raksin among others. Began scoring films in the early 1990s, and achieved a small degree of success through his work on the cult horror movie “Jack Frost”, and now juggles his scoring career with producing (for Dave Alvin, Rosie Florez, and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys) and undertaking classical commissions. Sometimes works under the pseudonym Whitey Anderson.
Highlight Scores: Sweethearts, Jack Frost, Edie & Pen, Playing Mona Lisa, Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, The Box.
Links: Workshirt Music
Michael Andrews
Born:
Background: Avant-garde composer/songwriter/producer, whose career began with him working as a writer, and performer with the likes of Greyboy Allstars, Metric and Elgin Park. Made his film music debut as recently as 2001, and quickly attained cult status through his work on the arthouse hit "Donnie Darko" (2001). Since then, Andrews has been quietly carving out a successful dual career, writing music for films such as “Orange County” (2002), “Stuck on You” (2003) and the hugely successful “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005), while continuing to collaborate with solo artists such as Brendan Benson and Inara George. Interestingly, Andrews achieved the coveted 2003 British Christmas #1 single with a cover of the Tears For Fears track "Mad World" from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, performed by his friend, singer Gary Jules.
Highlight Scores: Donnie Darko, Out Cold, Orange County, Cypher, Stuck on You, The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Links: Elgin Park Official Site [WARNING! FLASH HEAVY!]
Peitor Angell
Born:
Background: Successful Los Angeles based producer and arranger whose attempts to break into the film music big-time have, to date, proved relatively unsuccessful. Grew up in America and Europe, Angell studied piano as a child, and undertook private study with Josephine Brandt in Florence, Italy. First emerged on the soundtrack scene in the late 1990s, writing the scores for the Ethan Hawke/Salma Hayek flick “The Velocity of Gary” and the Eric Roberts vehicle “Façade”. As a producer, Angell has collaborated extensively with artists such as Pat Hodges and Tippi Britton, and undertaken work for MCA and Atlantic Records. As a songwriter, Angell wrote a number of pieces for the 1996 film “It’s My Party”, scored by Basil Poledouris, and wrote a hit song – “Let’s Go” - for the popular dance music act Nocera. In addition to this, Angell wrote the theme and finale music for the Olympic Ice Skaters at Madison Square Garden, and recently programmed the drum tracks for “Timeless", Barbra Streisand's New Years Eve show in Las Vegas. A number of Angell’s film scores have been released on his own record label, Bongos of Domiani.
Highlight Scores: Man of the Year, Lapdancer, The Velocity of Gary, Facade.
Links: Official Site
George Antheil
Born: 8 June 1900, Trenton, New Jersey. Died: 12 February 1959.
Background: Prodigiously talented composer and pianist, the self-proclaimed "The Bad Boy of Music". Studied with Sternberg, Bloch, and Smith at the Philadelphia Conservatory, before travelling to Europe in the 1920s to pursue a career as a concert pianist, where his recitals of his own works often incited riots! In Berlin, Antheil met Stravinsky, who subsequently became an important influence on his compositional style. During a tempestuous 30-year career, Antheil wrote numerous highly-regarded classical pieces, including six symphonies, three string quartets, two violin sonatas, two sonatas for violin and piano, four piano sonatas, three operas (including the acclaimed “Volpone”), and his crowning achievement, the “Ballet Méchanique”, which premiered in 1927 at Carnegie Hall, and caused an absolute uproar through its use of airplane propellers in the percussion section! Wrote his first film score in 1935, and subsequently wrote for almost 100 movies, although many of these were "uncredited" stock music scores used during the 1940s. Antheil and Ballet Méchanique was the subject of an acclaimed documentary, “Bad Boy Made Good” in 2003.
Highlight Scores: Spectre of the Rose, Tokyo Joe, The Sniper, Hunters of the Deep.
Links: Site devoted to Antheil and Ballet Méchanique
Pete Anthony
Born: 16 August 1963, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Background: Classically trained composer, arranger and conductor, Pete Anthony is Los Angeles's foremost "conductor for hire", having wielded the baton on almost 150 movies over the last ten years. Studied music and composition at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was a competent pianist and trumpeter, and began his career as a score reader and assistant for Patrick Russ and others. First began to make a name for himself collaborating with and undertaking orchestrations for Christopher Young, but now regularly orchestrates and conducts for all the major composers in Hollywood, and is regularly employed by the likes of James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman, Marc Shaiman and Marco Beltrami. Composed his first solo score in 1996, and is gradually branching out and seeking more writing projects, although his primary employment still sees him firmly behind the baton.
Highlight Scores: Run for the Dream, Love Songs.
Louis Applebaum
Born: 3 April 1918, Toronto, Canada. Died: 20 April 2000.
Background: Prolific and well-respected Canadian composer and conductor, and an Academy Award nominee in 1945. Studied at the University of Toronto with Sir Ernest MacMillan, and then in New York with Roy Harris and Bernard Wagenaar. Applebaums’s intention was always to write music for film; he made his debut in 1941, and went on to write over 40 scores over the next 30 years. For the majority of the latter part of his life, Applebaum devoted more time to business and administration than the creation of music. He founded the Stratford Music Festival in 1955, formed his own production company to make TV documentaries in 1966, was a consultant to CBC-TV, was a member of a Canadian government advisory board for the establishment of University music departments, was appointed Executive Director of the OAC in 1971, became chairman of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee in 1980, and was the first president of SOCAN, the Canadian performing rights organisation, in 1991. Throughout this period, Applebaum somehow managed to find time to undertake a great deal of teaching work at various Universities, as well as writing a number of ballets and theatre scores. He died of cancer in 2002, aged 84.
Highlight Scores: Tomorrow the World!, Story of G.I. Joe, Teresa, The Mask, Paddle to the Sea.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "Story of G.I. Joe" (1945).
David Arkenstone
Born:
Background: Successful and popular "new age" artist, who has released a number of hit albums for the Narada, Greenhill and Windham Hill labels. Born in Illinois but raised in California, Arkenstone began his career as a touring keyboard player with a number of pop artists, before branching out to work as a solo artist in the 1980s. Inspired by the lush electronic sound of Kitaro, Arkenstone has gone on to release a number of hit albums of what he describes his music as "cinematic new age rock", notably “In the Wake of the Wind”, “The Celtic Book of Days” and the Grammy-nominated "Sketches from an American Journey". Made his film music debut in 1993, but has not really made an impact beyond the realms of the fantasy/sci-fi sub-genre, although he has recently branched out into writing music for video games.
Highlight Scores: Mandroid, Robot Wars, The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight, Murdercycle.
Links: Official Site
Harold Arlen
Born: 15 February 1905, Buffalo, New York. Died: 23 April 1986.
Background: Real name Hyman Arluck. Born into a musical family, he began as a pianist in and around the music halls of upstate New York, before heading to Broadway to write musicals in the 1930s. Was subsequently lured by the glamour of Hollywood, and came to international prominence after writing the classic song 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' for "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939. Subsequently went on to become one of the most successful movie songwriters in history, with classics such as "Blues in the Night", "That Old Black Magic", "Accentuate the Positive" and "Stormy Weather". Often worked with lyricist partners Ted Koehler, E.Y. Harburg and Johnny Mercer. Died in 1986, aged 81.
Highlight Scores: The Wizard of Oz, Blues in the Night, Star Spangled Rhythm, The Sky's The Limit, Cabin in the Sky, Up in Arms, Here Come the Waves, Casbah, A Star is Born.
Awards: Academy Award for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz (1939), eight further nominations between 1942-1955.
Robert Armbruster
Born: 9 October 1908, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Background: American composer, conductor, pianist and songwriter. Studied at West Philadelphia High School, and subsequently with Constantin von Sternberg, before embarking on a career concert pianist, and then a conductor, composing for radio, television and film. Began working on films in the 1940s, initially as a music director for Republic Pictures, and often with director Allan Dwan. Was Oscar nominated for his work on the 1964 MGM musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”, and wrote the theme for the popular 1960s adventures TV show “National Velvet” before fading into obscurity as the 70s began.
Highlight Scores: Sweethearts on Parade, City of Shadows, Affair in Reno, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, National Velvet (TV).
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (1964).
Léo Arnaud
Born: 24 July 1904, Lyon, France. Died: 26 April 1991.
Background: Real name Noel Arnaud. Prolific music director and arranger who worked tirelessly for MGM throughout the 1930s and 40s on films ranging from “The Wizard of Oz”, “A Day at the Races” and “Boys Town” to “Seven Brides for Seven Brother” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”, for which he was Oscar nominated in 1964. Studied classical music and composition back home in France and worked with Maurice Ravel and Vincent d'Indy before emigrating to the U.S. in the late 1930s. Outside of film music, Arnaud was active in the classical music scene in Los Angeles, working as conductor of the Hollywood String Orchestra. Interestingly, one of Arnaud’s most famous compositions is “Bugler's Dream”, which is often uses as a trumpet fanfare at the Olympic games. After the success of Molly Brown, Arnaud retired to his home in Los Angeles, and died in 1991 aged 86.
Highlight Scores: Sombrero, Day of Fear, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The FBI (TV).
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (1964).
Malcolm Arnold
Born: 21 October 1921, Northampton, England.
Background: One of the most highly respected composers of British classical music of the late 20th century, well known as a teacher, lecturer, and mainstay on the British music scene. Studied composition and trumpet at the Royal College of Music, and began his career as a session trumpeter, becoming principal of the London Philharmonic in 1943. After a career-break serving in WWII, Arnold became more interested in composing than performing, and after a year’s scholarship in Italy, turned his hand to writing full-time. Arnold has since gone on to write a staggering amount of music, including nine symphonies, five ballets, two operas, 20 concertos, numerous overtures and orchestral dances, two string quartets and other chamber music, choral music, song cycles and works for wind and brass band. He is often celebrated as a quintessentially ‘English’ composer, and was regarded as a natural successor to the likes of Britten and Vaughan-Williams. Not content with confining himself to the concert hall, Arnold wrote his first film score in 1946, and went on to write music for almost 100 projects, almost all of them for British productions. His Oscar-winning score for “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957) is a classic, as are his efforts on “The Belles of St. Trinians” (1954), “The Inn of Sixth Happiness” (1958) and “The Battle of Britain” (1969). He was knighted for services to music by the Queen in 1993.
Highlight Scores: Breaking the Sound Barrier, Hobson's Choice, The Belles of St. Trinians, Trapeze, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Inn of Sixth Happiness, Suddenly Last Summer, Tunes of Glory, Whistle Down the Wind, The Heroes of Telemark, Battle of Britain
Awards: Academy Award for Best Score for "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957).
Links: The Malcolm Arnold Society
Edward Artemyev
Born: 30 November 1937, Moscow, Russia.
Background: Classically trained, Edward Artemyev has written over 100 scores for Russian cinema, with directors such as Andrei Tarkovski, Andrei Konchalovski and Nikita Mikhalkov. Inspired by the likes of Karl Heinz Stockhausen, he began composing avant-garde electronic music in the early 1960s, and first came to international prominence through his score for the 1972 sci-fi drama "Solyaris", but still retained a love for scholarly classical music and progressive rock. As well as his film work Artemyev has written numerous concert and performance pieces - he was music director at the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, composed a work for the Bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989, and has written the acclaimed works "The Seven Gates into the World of Satori", "Mood-Pictures", "The Warmth of the Earth" and "Peregrini".
Highlight Scores: Solyaris, Close To Eden, Burnt By The Sun, Double Jeopardy, The Barber of Siberia.
Kenny Ascher
Born: 26 October 1944, Washington, D.C.
Background: Acclaimed composer, arranger, pianist and songwriter, best known for his ongoing work with the diminutive Paul Williams. The pair were responsible for many popular songs in the late 1970s, notably from the hit 1976 Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson romance “A Star Is Born”, and also Kermit the Frog’s song “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie in 1979. Away from the film world the ‘fiercely talented’ Ascher is a respected arranger and collaborator who has worked with a number of acclaimed artists, notably James Taylor, Walls and Bridges, Dean Friedman, Johnny Winter, Perry Como, Scott Whitfield and others.
Highlight Scores: A Star Is Born, The Muppet Movie.
Awards: Golden Globe for "A Star is Born" (1976). Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for "The Muppet Movie" (1979). BAFTA and Grammy nominations for "A Star is Born".
Gil Askey
Born: 9 March 1925, Austin, Texas.
Background: Successful and acclaimed producer and arranger, who was responsible for the “sound” of many classic tracks from the Motown era. Despite having an early ambition to play American football, Askey was lured my music, and began his career as a horn player, touring with the likes of the Buddy Johnson Band, Chuck Berry, Clyde McFadder, and Bill Haley. He joined the fledgling Motown record label in the 1950s and, during his career Askey worked as composer, producer and musical director for performers including Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, The Temptations, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, Gladys Knight and many, many more. He received an Oscar nomination for his work on the 1972 Diana Ross vehicle “Lady Sings the Blues”, only of only two films on which Askey worked. Now semi retired, he currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Highlight Scores: Lady Sings the Blues, Dummy.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972).
Tim Atack
Born: 1971, Leeds, England.
Background: Yorkshire-based composer and arranger who, following the completion of his studies, began working as a freelance musician and keyboard player in the 1980s. Was hired as music director by British soul artist Des'ree in 1995, and subsequently supported her on a world tour and through a million-selling album, until his song "Kissing You" was picked up by director Baz Luhrmann, and played a large role in the soundtrack for "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet". Since then, Atack has begun to develop a second career in film scoring, having written for a number of low-budget British features. However, the main focus of his energy remains predominantly in the pop world, and he continues to work with artists such a Des'ree and Oleta Adams, as well as his own band, Cornerstone.
Highlight Scores: William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Among Giants, Elephant Juice.
Georges Auric
Born: 15 February 1899, Lodève, France. Died: 23 July 1983.
Background: Hugely influential French composer who studied under Eric Satie at the Paris Conservatoire, Auric was a member of the "Les Six" group of composers that included Milhaud, Poulenc, Honegger, Tailleferre and Durey, who revolted against the recognised establishment in the 1950s. His membership of Lex Six brought him into contact with director Jean Cocteau (at that time a playwright), and that relationship led to writing settings of poetry and other texts as songs and musicals. When Cocteau turned to film making, it was natural that Auric would also turn to film music. While his work for Cocteau was certainly important, it is actually for his work on the in England that he is best remembered, especially his period as head of music at Ealing Studios during the 1960s, and his scores for the Ealing comedies. In addition to his film music, Auric’s many classical works include the ballets "Les Mariès de la Tour Eiffel", “Les Facheaux”, “Les Oiseaux” and “Phedre”, several piano sonatas, and chamber music. Auric died in Paris in 1983, aged 84.
Highlight Scores: La Belle et la Bête, Hue & Cry, It Always Rains on Sunday, Passport to Pimlico, Orphée, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Titfield Thunderbolt, Roman Holiday, Rififi, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Mark Ayres
Born: 28 December 1960, London, England.
Background: Born in London, Mark Ayres spent his childhood in the town of Tunbridge Wells, studied at Keele University, and began his career working as a television sound engineer. After moonlighting as a writer of jingles and idents, Ayres switched to composing full-time in 1987, and has worked on many programmes for British TV since then. He is synonymous with the most recent incarnations of the classic sci-fi series "Doctor Who", and has worked extensively with Silva Screen Records on their various re-recording and compilation albums.
Highlight Scores: Doctor Who (TV), The Innocent Sleep.
Links: Official Site
Bruce Babcock
Born: 10 April 1951, Pasadena, California.
Background: Popular TV composer and orchestrator, best known for his Emmy-nominated work on shows such as "Matlock", "The Father Dowling Mysteries" and "Murder She Wrote". Studied at California State University in Northridge, and began his career as a classical clarinet and saxophone player before making his scoring debut in the early 1980s, writing episodic scores for popular shows such as "The Dukes of Hazzard", "Falcon Crest", "MacGyver" and "V". Has since gone on to become one of televisions most reliable practitioners; in addition to his solo composing work, Babcock is also one of Hollywood's most in-demand orchestrators, having recently worked on blockbuster films for composers such as Christopher Young, Carter Burwell, Michael Kamen, Alan Silvestri and Bruce Broughton. In addition to his film work, Babcock has also written extensively for the concert hall; while still a student, he won a Young Musicians Foundation competition for his "Music for String Orchestra", and since then has had his classical concert performed by the Kansas City Symphony, the San Francisco Chamber Players, and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Highlight Scores: Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Matlock (TV), Father Dowling Mysteries (TV), Murder She Wrote (TV), Casper (TV).
Awards: Emmy for “Matlock” in 1992; five further Emmy nominations "Matlock" (1990), "The Father Dowling Mysteries" (1991) and "Murder She Wrote" (1993, 1994 and 1995).
Links: Official Site
Burt Bacharach
Born: 12 May 1929, Kansas City, Missouri.
Background: Hugely influential and well-respected songwriter with a roster of successes that is almost unparalleled. Studied with Darius Milhaud in Paris, and played in jazz bands in Europe and the United States before becoming a songwriter and composer. First came to prominence in the early 1960s when, along with long-time lyricist partner Hal David, he began to write songs for Motown divas such as Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross. Over the next thirty years, Bacharach and David would go on to write such classic hit songs as "Magic Moments", "Walk on By", "Do You Know the Way to San Jose", "I'll Never Fall in Love again", "What the World Needs Now", "Close to You", "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", "Alfie" and "The Look of Love", and work with artists as varied as The Drifters, Gene Pitney, Bobby Vinton, Dusty Springfield, The Carpenters, Jackie De Shannon, Tom Jones, Cilla Black, and many many more. Surprisingly, Bacharach’s contribution to the world of film scoring as opposed to film songwriting is limited, despite such hits as “What’s New Pussycat” (1965), the Oscar-winning “Butch Cassidy” (1969) and “Arthur” (1981).
Highlight Scores: What's New Pussycat, After the Fox, Casino Royale, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Arthur, Isn't She Great.
Links: Burt Bacharach: A House is not a Homepage
Awards: Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Song for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). Academy Award for Best Song for "Arthur" (1981). Three other nominations for songwriting between 1966-1969. Also two Golden Globes, one BAFTA, and a Grammy, all for Butch Cassidy.
Pierre Bachelet
Born: 24 May 1944, Calais, France. Died: 15 February 2005.
Background: Popular and successful French composer, the majority of whose international exposure has been through his long association with director Just Jaeckin, and his soft-porn classics as "Emmanuelle" and "The Story of O". Began his career in France as a singer/songwriter, penning lyrics both for himself and others, and has recorded popular songs (including the classic "Elle est a'Ailleurs"), as well as a best-selling album in 1998. Was regarded as something of a film music anomaly, a slightly camp throwback to the soft focus of the 1970s, until he attained a degree of classical respectability when he was nominated for a César (French Oscar) for his work on the film “Les Enfants du Marais” (“The Children of the Marshlands”) in 2000. Died of cancer in February 2005 at his home near Paris, aged 60.
Highlight Scores: Emmanuelle, The Story of O, Black and White in Color, The Perils of Gwendoline, The Children of the Marshlands.
Links: Official Site
Constantin Bakaleinikoff
Born: 26 April 1898, Moscow, Russia. Died: 3 September 1966.
Background: Russian-born composer and conductor who, along with his older brother Mischa, fled the Bolshevik regime and emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Immediately found success as a member of the music departments of Columbia Pictures and Grand National Pictures, before finding a life-long home at RKO. Over the course of a 30 year career, Bakaleinikoff worked on over 300 RKO films as a music director, and wrote original music of his own for a further fifty, receiving three Oscar nominations in the process. Bakaleinikoff retired from film music at the end of the 1950s and moved to Lancaster, California, where he lived with his wife, silent movie actress Fritzi Ridgeway, until her death in 1961. Bakaleinikoff himself died in 1966, aged 68.
Highlight Scores: The Emperor's Candlesticks, Escape, Joan of Paris, The Fallen Sparrow, Higher and Higher, None But the Lonely Heart, The Racket.
Awards: Academy Award nominations for "The Fallen Sparrow" (1943), "Higher and Higher" (1944) and "None But the Lonely Heart" (1944).
Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Born: 10 November 1890, Moscow, Russia. Died: 10 August 1960.
Background: Russian-born composer and conductor who, along with his younger brother Constantin, fled the Bolshevik regime and emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Spent virtually his entire career as a music director at Columbia Pictures, working on over 300 films as a music director, and writing original music of his own for a further 300 (much of which was culled from stock music he wrote for various film music studio archive libraries). Unlike his brother, Mischa never received any official recognition from the Oscars, but did manage to score several successful movies, including “Earth vs. The Flying Saucers” (1956) and “20 Million Miles to Earth” (1957). Bakaleinikoff retired from film music at the end of the 1950s, but died 1960, aged 70.
Highlight Scores: Lady for a Day, The Big Heat, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Jet Pilot, The Tall T, Comanche Station.
Buddy Baker
Born: 4 January 1918, Springfield, Missouri. Died: 26 July 2002.
Background: Real name Norman Dale Baker. Talented but under-rated composer and conductor who will forever be linked with the Disney studio, having spent almost his entire career writing music for their films, TV shows, cartoons and theme park attractions. A talented trumpeter in his youth, Baker moved from Illinois to Los Angeles in 1938, and worked prolifically throughout the 1940s, arranging big band music for swing acts, working on radio shows for entertainers such as Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor, and acting as Bob Hope's principal musical arranger during World War II. Began writing film music in the 1950s when a former student, George Bruns, asked his old mentor to help him out on some work he was doing for the Disney corporation. Over the next 30 years, Baker would write extensively for the empire, and includes animated classics such as “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” (1968) and “The Fox and the Hound” (1981), as well as the Oscar-nominated "Napoleon and Samantha" (1972) among his credits. He also wrote a lot of music for attractions at the Disneyland theme parks, including such perennial favourites as "Grim Grinning Ghosts" from the Haunted Mansion, the children's chorus of "It's a Small World", American Adventure, Innoventions and the Carousal of Progress. Baker was also active in music education, having taught at the University of Southern California since 1984, right up until his death at the age of 84 in 2002.
Highlight Scores: Swiss Family Robinson, Summer Magic, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, $1 million Duck, Napoleon and Samantha, The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Shaggy DA, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Fox and the Hound, music director for The Mickey Mouse Club.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "Napoleon and Samantha" (1972).
Michael Conway Baker
Born: 13 March 1937, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Background: American composer who has spent much of his working career in Canada. son of vaudeville and radio comedian Phil Baker, he studied at Royal College of Music in London, and the University of British Columbia, eventually becoming a Canadian citizen in 1970. He began scoring films in Canada the late 1970s, and has since amassed over 20 credits, including "The Grey Fox" (1982) and "John and the Missus" (1987), both of which won Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars). In addition to his film work, Baker is recognised as one of Canada's most high-profile classical composers, having written a concerto for flute and strings, a piano concerto, two symphonies, a full-length ballet based on Henry James's novel "Washington Square" for the National Ballet of Canada, and an original score for the ice ballet Ice Capades production of "Cinderella: Frozen in Time".
Highlight Scores: Nails, The Grey Fox, Deserters, One Magic Christmas, John and the Missus, Anything to Survive, Savage Land, Starlight.
Links: Music from TreeTop Lane.
Alexander Balanescu
Born: 11 July 1954, Bucharest, Romania.
Background: Born in Romania, but raised in Israel (where his family fled to escape the regime of Nicolae Ceausecsu), Alexander Balanescu studied music at the Royal Academy in London and at Julliard in New York. He is currently one of London's most respected violinists - he is the founder member of the Balanescu Quartet (which comprises Clare Connors [violin], Bill Hawkes [viola] and Nick Price [cello]), and is a permanent fixture on the European classical music scene. He has worked extensively with Michael Nyman, especially on his scores for Peter Greenaway films, and has also enjoyed successful collaborations with "pop" artists such as David Byrne, Kate Bush, Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk. To date, his only solo scoring success was for the 1995 arthouse drama “Angels and Insects”.
Highlight Scores: Angels and Insects, Le Poulpe, Il Partigiano Johnny.
Roque Baños
Born: 1968, Jumilla, Spain.
Background: One of a group of talented composers to emerge from Spain in recent years. Baños studied composition and saxophone at the Conservatoris Superiors de Música in Múrcia, and at the Real Conservatory in Madrid, before winning a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he specialised in cinema and jazz. Returning to Spain, he has since written extensively for television and theatre, and has worked with directors including Carlos Saura, Santiago Segura and Alex de la Iglesia. He scored his first cinema film in 1997, and first reached an international audience through his work on the Oscar-nominated “Sexy Beast” (2000), before going on to score the independent thriller “The Machinist” in 2004. , He won a Goya Award (Spanish Oscar) in 2003 for his work on "Salome".
Highlight Scores: Goya in Bordeaux, El Corazon del Guerrero, Sexy Beast, La Communidad, The Wrong Side of the Bed, 800 Balas, The Machinist.
Lesley Barber
Born:
Background: One of Canada’s most exciting young composers, Barber began composing at the age of 10, was an award winner in Canada’s Socan National Competition for Young Composers, and went on to complete a Master’s Degree in Composition at the University of Toronto. She made her film music debut in 1995, working for director Patricia Rozema’s on “When Night Is Falling”, and has since gone on to write scores for several internationally successful films. Away from film music, Barber’s has written extensively for theatre and the concert hall: credits include groundbreaking Canadian plays such as “Unidentified Human Remains”, “The Warriors” and “Escape From Happiness”, and commissions for classical works from The Canadian Electronic Ensemble, harpist Erica Goodman, percussionist Beverly Johnston, and pianist Eve Egoyan.
Highlight Scores: When Night Is Falling, A Price Above Rubies, Mansfield Park, You Can Count on Me, Hysterical Blindness.
Gato Barbieri
Born: 28 November 1934, Rosario, Argentina.
Background: Real name Leandro Barbieri. Highly influential and respected composer, arranger and saxophonist who brought the avant-garde rhythms of Latin and South American world music to the jazz and blues arena in the mid-1960s. Played in Lalo Schifrin’s jazz orchestra as a teenager, and started out playing to traditional Latin rhythms before turning his back on his heritage to explore the worlds of avant-garde jazz and pop fusion, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with the likes of Mike Mantler, Carla Bley and Carlos Santana. Contributed music to a number of South American films in the late 1960s, but made his international film music debut in 1972, writing the seminal score for Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic classic “Last Tango in Paris” starring Marlon Brando. Since then, Barbieri’s film music output has been slow at best, instead choosing to concentrate on his career as one of the most celebrated jazz saxophonists of his generation. Among his most popular solo albums are titles such as "Que Pasa", "Caliente", "Shadow of the Cat" and "Calle 54", the soundtrack to a film in which he featured.
Highlight Scores: Last Tango in Paris, Firepower, Strangers Kiss, Calle 54.
Awards: Grammy Award for "Last Tango in Paris" (1973).
Juan Bardem
Born: 1956, Spain.
Background: Popular Spanish composer, whose work has reached international audiences recently through his collaborations with director Fernando Colomo. The son of renowned director and writer Juan Antonio Bardem, who died in 2002, Bardem Jr. worked with his father in the mid to early 1980s before making his film music debut in 1987. Has steadily built up an impressive list of credits, the culmination of which has been the Goya Award (Spanish Oscar) he won for his work on the 2003 film "Al Sur de Granada".
Highlight Scores: Más Que Amor Frenesi, Los Años Bárbaros, La Mujer Más Fea Del Mundo, A Mi Madre Le Gustan Las Mujeres, Al Sur de Granada.
Nathan Barr
Born:
Background: Exciting young American composer who is making great strides in breaking into the film music big leagues. Spent much of his childhood in Japan, where he became interested in a "world music" sound that encompassed everything from traditional symphonics and his mother's piano to Japanese kabuki theatre, Balinese 'kecak' orchestras and Chinese opera. Studied the cello at Juilliard in the early 1990s, played guitar and electric cello with an industrial alternative rock group called Vast, and entered the film music world in 1996 as Hans Zimmer's assistant at Media Ventures in Los Angeles. Assisted Hans on "As Good As It Gets" and "The Prince of Egypt" and several other films, before scoring his first solo film in 1998. Has since scored a number of hits, including the horror thriller “Cabin Fever” (2003), which he co-wrote with Angelo Badalamenti, several hit movies for the Broken Lizard comedy team (“Club Dread”, “The Dukes of Hazzard”) and the successful Quentin Tarantino-produced gore-fest “Hostel” (2006). Barr is married to vocalist Lisbeth Scott, who recently sang on the “Passion of the Christ” and “Chronicles of Narnia” soundtracks.
Highlight Scores: Hair Shirt, Beyond the Mat, Red Dirt, From Dusk Till Dawn 3, Cabin Fever, Club Dread, The Dukes of Hazzard, Hostel.
Bebe Barron
Born: 1927, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Background: An early pioneer of electro-acoustic music who, along with her husband Louis Barron, experimented with musique concrete and electronic sources. Established one of the earliest electro-acoustic music studios in New York, where they created their first fully-realized work, "Heavenly Menagerie”. John Cage later prepared his first tape work "Williams Mix" there in 1953. The Barrons are generally considered to have "introduced" electronic music to film with their 1956 score for the film “Forbidden Planet”. Moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s to continue her work in avant-garde electronic music composition and production. She divorced from Louis in the 1970s, but continued to create original music until his death. She has not written an original music since then, but remains active in new music, and the post of secretary of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music from 1985-87.
Highlight Scores: Bells of Atlantis, Forbidden Planet.
Louis Barron
Born: 1920, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Died: 1989.
Background: An early pioneer of electro-acoustic music who, along with his wife Bebe Barron, experimented with musique concrete and electronic sources. Established one of the earliest electro-acoustic music studios in New York, where they created their first fully-realized work, "Heavenly Menagerie”. John Cage later prepared his first tape work "Williams Mix" there in 1953. The Barrons are generally considered to have "introduced" electronic music to film with their 1956 score for the film “Forbidden Planet”. Moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s to continue his work in avant-garde electronic music composition and production. He divorced from Bebe in the 1970s, and continued to create original music until his death in 1989 aged 69.
Highlight Scores: Bells of Atlantis, Forbidden Planet.
Daemion Barry
Born: Died: 28 July 2004.
Background: Prolific British TV composer, best known for his work on the long-running detective series "Dalziel and Pascoe", based on the popular novels by Reginald Hill. Began his career in the early 1990s and quickly became a television mainstay, having been nominated twice for BAFTA TV Awards in 1995 and 2000. In addition to his film work, Barry was active in the pop scene for many years, having undertaken work with a variety of artists including Hazel O'Connor, Anthony Adverse and Julia Gilbert. Sadly, Barry died in July 2004 at a tragically young age, having never made an impact beyond the shores of Great Britain.
Highlight Scores: Dalziel and Pascoe (TV), A Woman's Guide to Adultery, Signs and Wonders, In the Name of Love, The War Behind the Wire.
Steve Bartek
Born: 30 January 1952, Garfield, Ohio.
Background: A talented multi-instrumentalist and arranger, Steve Bartek initially found fame as a member of Danny Elfman's cult rock band Oingo Boingo, in which he played lead guitar. When Elfman delved into the world of film music in the 1980s, Bartek followed, and has subsequently acted as his lead orchestrator ever since, having worked on everything from "Batman" and "Edward Scissorhands" to "Sleepy Hollow". Eager to make his own name as a composer, Bartek began writing scores on his own in the late 1980s, initially scoring episodes of “Amazing Stories” and “Tales from the Crypt” before reaching a wider audience through the commercial success of films such as "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" (1997), “Snow Day” (2000) and “Novocaine” (2001). Despite this, Bartek remains firmly a part of Elfman’s ‘backroom team’, having recently worked on “Man in Black II”, “Red Dragon”, and written additional music for “Spider-Man 2”.
Highlight Scores: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Meet The Deedles, Psycho, Snow Day, The Crew, Get Over It, Novocaine.
Benjamin Bartlett
Born: 17 March 1965, London, England.
Background: British TV composer who picked up BAFTA and Emmy nominations for his first score in 1999. Played guitar as a child, and went on to study at London University and the Guildhall School of Music. He literally burst out of nowhere when he composed the music for the groundbreaking BBC documentary series "Walking With Dinosaurs", and has since gone on to contribute memorable music to its sequels and spin-offs, notably "Walking with Beasts" and "The Ballad of Big Al". In addition to his film work, Bartlett has also written a number of classical and performance pieces, including a trumpet concerto, a suite for string orchestra, a violin concerto for violinist Adonis Alvanis, and an original short opera entitled "El Tigre" which premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in London.
Highlight Scores: Walking with Dinosaurs, The Secret World of Michael Fry, Walking with Beasts, The Ballad of Big Al, Land of Giants, Absolute Power.
Links: Official Site [WARNING! ODDLY CONFUSING WEBSITE!].
Dee Barton
Born: 18 September 1937, Houston, Mississippi. Died: 3 December 2001.
Background: Talented jazz musician and composer, best known for his work on several hit Clint Eastwood films of the 1970s. Graduated from North Texas State University and began his career playing trombone and drums, and then arranging for Stan Kenton. A chance meeting in a jazz club let to Barton being asked to score Clint Eastwood’s “Play Misty for Me”, and several subsequent hits. Away from film music, Barton continued to collaborate on jazz recordings, performing with and arranging for the likes of Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson, and recorded an album of his own music with the Dallas Jazz Symphony. Following the completion of his last score in 1987, Barton semi-retired to Brandon, Mississippi, where he taught music at Jackson State University. He died there in 2001, aged 64.
Highlight Scores: Play Misty For Me, High Plains Drifter, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot.
Tyler Bates
Born: Chicago, Illinois.
Background: Impressive young composer whose star is in the ascendancy in Hollywood. Originally from a pop and rock background – Bates is the front-man of the indie rock group Pet – he moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in the mid 1990s to concentrate on scoring films, having enjoyed a moderately successful career as a rock and jazz musician in his native Illinois. Began his career, as so many aspiring composers do, working on low-budget projects for Roger Corman, but began to make an impact upon making his mainstream debut. Bates has since gone on to score a number of successful films, including the popular “Get Carter” (2000), “Kingdom Come” (2001), “Half Past Dead” (2002), “Dawn of the Dead” (2004), 300 (2007), and Rob Zombie’s recent horror classic remake of Halloween.
Highlight Scores: The Last Time I Committed Suicide, Rated X, Get Carter, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th, Kingdom Come, Half Past Dead, You Got Served, Dawn of the Dead, The Devil's Rejects, 300, Halloween.
Mike Batt
Born: 2 February 1950, Southampton, England.
Background: Respected composer, conductor, songwriter and musical entrepreneur, who has been a well-known face in the UK since he began his career as the Head of A&R for United Artists Records in 1968. Enjoyed his first success in the mid-1970s, when he created the musical side of Elizabeth Beresford’s cuddly Wombles characters, and had several top-10 hit singles as a result. The success of the Wombles led to musical collaborations with pop artists such as Barbara Dickson, Elkie Brooks, Cliff Richard, David Essex and Alvin Stardust, and a side-step into film music in 1978, when he wrote popular song ‘Bright Eyes’ for the film “Watership Down” and vocalist Art Garfunkel. Since then, Batt has had all manner of success: he had a hit single of his own, "Summertime City"; made his concert debut as a conductor with the LSO in 1984; helped write "The Phantom of the Opera" with Andrew Lloyd-Webber in 1986, and launched the careers of pop violinist Vanessa Mae, all-girl string quarter Bond, classical crossover group The Planets, and jazz vocalist Katie Melua through his own record label. Batt has also continued to work in film, writing music for such films as “Caravans” and “The Hunting of the Snark”. Batt suffered a broken neck in a horrific car crash while on a classical tour in Spain in 2001, but has thankfully recovered.
Highlight Scores: Watership Down, Caravans, The Hunting of the Snark, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Eye of the Storm.
Links: Official Site
Arnold Bax
Born: 8 November 1883, London, England. Died: 3 October 1953.
Background: Highly respected British composer of classical works who, ironically, hated composing for films, feeling that it "demeaned his music". Studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Frederick Corder, and began writing pieces for his classical repertoire in 1910. Repeatedly inspired by his enduring love the island of Ireland, his most famous works include "Tintagel" (inspired by a love affair he had with concert pianist Harriet Cohen), the tone poems “The Garden of Fand” and “November Wood”, seven symphonies and a violin concerto. He also wrote and published many works of original poetry, and considered the early poetry of W.B. Yeats as "meaning more to him than all the music of the centuries. Shortly after being knighted for his services to music by King George VI in 1937, Bax made his film music debut, writing music for a wartime Ministry of Information documentary entitled “Malta GC”. His most celebrated film score was for David Lean’s 1948 version of “Oliver Twist”, starring Alec Guinness and Anthony Newley, but Bax detested the process so much he only wrote one more film score in his life. Died of a heart attack at his summer home in County Cork in 1953, at the age of 69; his life story was made into a TV movie, “The Secret Life of Arnold Bax”, directed by and starring Ken Russell in 1992.
Highlight Scores: Malta GC, Oliver Twist, Journey Into History.
Links: The Sir Arnold Bax Website maintained by Richard Adams.
Les Baxter
Born: 14 March 1922, Mexia, Texas. Died: 15 January 1996.
Background: Hugely talented composer and conductor who spent most of his career writing wonderful music for terrible B-movies in Hollywood. Was educated at the Detroit Conservatory, and at Pepperdine College in Malibu, California, and began his musical career as a singer with Mel Torme's Mel-Tones in the 1940s. Had a hit record, "Poor People of Paris" with his own orchestra, conducted the orchestras and chorus for radio's Abbott & Costello and Bob Hope, and arranged and orchestrated for Nat King Cole, Margaret Whiting and Frank DeVol before making his film music debut a freelance musical director in the mid-1950s. Joined Roger Corman’s American International Pictures at the beginning of the 1960s, and worked on a number of cult horror movie successes, including “House of Usher”, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Raven”, many of which were based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Segued into blaxploitation films in 1970s, and was “re-discovered” by for Italian horror director Mario Bava in the 1980s, before eventually retiring to Newport Beach, California. Scored over 100 films in a 30-year career, but remains largely undiscovered and under-valued by the film music world at large. Died in 1996, aged 73, following a series of heart and kidney problems.
Highlight Scores: Monika, Black Sunday, House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Terror, Black Sabbath, The Raven, X, Beach Blanket Bingo, Switchblade Sisters, Frogs, The Beast Within, the "Lassie" TV theme.
John Beal
Born: 20 January 1945, Santa Monica, California.
Background: A truly unique figure in the world of film music, John Everett Beal graduated from John Muir High School, San Diego State College and UCLA. Upon his return from his tour of duty in Vietnam, Beal worked as a conductor/arranger with the likes of Olivia Newton-John, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and Johnny Mathis, before segueing into the film music world in the late seventies. He worked on several high profile TV shows, including "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley", and scored his first feature movie, "Zero to Sixty" starring Joan Collins and Darren McGavin, in 1978. Other small-scale features and television projects followed, including "The Funhouse" (1981), "Terror in the Aisles" (1984), and working with Alex North and James Horner on their scores for "Under the Volcano" and "The Stone Boy". Beal truly found his niche when he set up Reeltime Music Incorporated, which is now the world's leading industry provider of original scoring for theatrical and television trailers. Since Reeltime's inception, Beal has become an industry unto himself, having been involved in hundreds of movie advertising campaigns, and written original trailer music for films such as "Aladdin", "Black Rain", "Disturbing Behaviour", "Eraser", "Forrest Gump", "Ghost", "Hamlet", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "The Hunt For Red October", "In The Line Of Fire", "J.F.K.", "The Mask", "True Lies", and "The Mask of Zorro". Beal recently released a CD containing over 60 of his trailer music tracks, entitled "Coming Soon: The John Beal Trailer Project". Beal resides in Toluca Lake, California, with his second wife Helene, whom he married in December 2002.
Highlight Scores: Terror in the Aisles, The Funhouse, Barney’s Great Adventure, Coming Soon: The John Beal Trailer Project.
Links: Official Site.
Jeff Beal
Born: 20 June 1963, Hayward, California.
Background: Talented and critically acclaimed composer and jazz trumpeter who was named one of ‘20 Creatives to Watch’ by Variety Magazine in 2001. Studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and first came to national acclaim when he the recipient of an unprecedented 11 "db" awards from Downbeat Magazine for his recordings as a jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger – while still in school! Scored his first movies in 1994, received critical acclaim (and his first taste of commercial success) following his work on the Oscar-winning "Pollock" in 2000, and won an Emmy for the main title theme he wrote for the TV comedy/drama series “Monk” in 2003. In addition to his film music work, Beal has released many acclaimed solo jazz albums, notably “Liberation”, “Perpetual Motion”, “Red Shift”, “Three Graces” and “Alternate Route”. He has also collaborated with a number of other artists, including John Pattitucci, Steve Tavaglione and Tom Waits. He is married to soprano singer Joan Beal.
Highlight Scores: Power 98, Looking Italian, Guy, Lies He Told, Pollock, Monk (TV), Carnivàle (TV), The Wool Cap, Back When We Were Grownups, Emmanuel’s Gift, Rome (TV).
Awards: Emmy for "Monk" in 2003.
Links: Official Site.
David Bell
Born: 17 April 1954, Middletown, Ohio.
Background: Veteran American TV composer who is best known for his work on the immensely popular "Star Trek" sci-fi series. Made his debut in the early 1980s, writing for small-scale TV movies and episodic underscore for shows such as "Murder She Wrote", "Sunset Beach" and "In The Heat of the Night", before reaching a wider audience via his work on "Deep Space Nine" in the mid-1990s. He is a two-time Emmy nominee, and has also written two books: "Getting the Best Score for Your Film" and "Divorce: Making the Break" (which chronicles his own divorce following the death of his son from a birth defect, and is quite obviously not about film music).
Highlight Scores: Murder She Wrote (TV), Final Justice, Dead Man's Walk, Star Trek: Voyager (TV), There Goes the Neighbourhood, Enterprise (TV).
Richard Bellis
Born: 3 April 1946, Pasadena, California.
Background: Prolific composer of music, mainly for American TV movies and mini-series. Began his career as a child actor in Hollywood, appearing in the 1957 movie “Portland Expose”, as well as episodes of “Batman” and “Cheyenne”, before turning his attention to music in his late teens. Began his career as musical director for the touring version of the popular rock 'n roll showcase “Shindig”, and went on to work with Johnny Mathis, Bobby Sherman, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret, before turning his hand to film scoring full time in 1976. Won an Emmy in 1990 for his haunting score for the TV mini-series based on Stephen King’s “It”, and received further nominations for his work on the TV movies “Doublecrossed” (1991) and “Double Double Toil and Trouble” (1993). Recently, Bellis has been the resident music director for child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, having worked on may of their straight-to-video specials. As well as his composing work, Bellis is also active in film music politics, having served as president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists. He has also served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for seventeen years, where he lectured in the Scoring for Television and Motion Pictures program, and currently acts as host/mentor for ASCAP's annual Film Scoring Workshop.
Highlight Scores: Shattered Innocence, Stephen King's It, To Grandmother’s House We Go, Doublecrossed, Double Double Toil and Trouble, One Special Night.
Links: Official Site
Awards: Emmy for "Stephen King's It" (1987).
David Benoit
Born: 9 May 1953, Bakersfield, California.
Background: A highly respected jazz pianist and composer, David Benoit is much more widely known in that field than for his film music. He began his career in the early 1970s, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the contemporary jazz sound. He studied at El Camino College, and got his big break playing piano on the soundtrack to Robert Altman’s 1975 film “Nashville”. Released his first solo album, "Heavier Than Yesterday", in 1977, and reached a wider audience when he signed for Dave Grusin's GRP record label in 1987. Benoit has subsequently recorded 14 albums of original for GRP, notably "Every Step of the Way" (1988), "Waiting for Spring" (1989), "Letter to Evan" (1992), and several albums dedicated to Charles Schulz's beloved comic strip "Peanuts" and its composer Vince Guaraldi. Having started his career in film, it was only natural that Benoit would eventually return to the genre: he composed his first scores in the early 1990s, and received critical acclaim for his work on the melodramas “The Stars Fell on Henrietta” and “The Christmas Tree”, before taking on the job of principal composer of the long-running daytime soap “All My Children”. A three-time Grammy nominee, Benoit has just released his 22nd album, "Fuzzy Logic", and is currently involved with a Broadway production about the life of Marilyn Monroe.
Highlight Scores: The Stars Fell On Henrietta, The Christmas Tree, Final Descent, Cadillac Jack, Here's To You, Charlie Brown.
Links: Official Site
Richard Rodney Bennett
Born: 29 March 1936, Broadstairs, England.
Background: Versatile of British composer and performer, now regarded as one of the “elder statesmen” of British film music. Studied under Pierre Boulez at the Royal Academy in London, and became well-known as an accomplished jazz pianist and singer in and around London in the 1950s and early 1960s. He scored his first film in 1957, and quickly became one of the most respected composers of film music in Britain the 1960s and early 70s, when he was especially prolific, having written for successes such as “Far From The Madding Crowd” (1967), “Nicholas and Alexandra” (1971), “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974) and “Equus” (1977),. Moved to the United States in the mid 1970s to take up the post of composer-in-residence at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and enjoyed a second wind as a jazz pianist, singer and composer, touring extensively and appearing as a soloist at jazz clubs in New York and elsewhere. Moved to New York permanently in 1979, and virtually retired, only to make a surprising comeback with the international smash hit romantic comedy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” in 1994. Since then, Bennett has slipped into retirement once more, limiting himself to work as a visiting professor at the Royal Academy. In addition to his film music, Bennett has written several operas and symphonies, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to music in 1977.
Highlight Scores: Billy Liar, The Witches, Far From The Madding Crowd, Figures in a Landscape, The Buttercup Chain, Nicholas and Alexandra, Lady Caroline Lamb, Murder on the Orient Express, Equus, The Brinks Job, Yanks, Enchanted April, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Gormenghast.
Awards: Oscar nominations for "Far From The Madding Crowd" (1967), "Nicholas and Alexandra" (1971) and "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974). BAFTA Award for "Murder on the Orient Express".
Links: Page by Schirmer Music Publishers
Robert Russell Bennett
Born: 15 June 1894, Kansas City, Kansas. Died: 18 August 1981.
Background: Near-legendary arranger, orchestrator and conductor, who worked extensively on some of the biggest Broadway hits of all time. Studied piano and composition with Carl Busch and Nadia Boulanger, and began conducting at the age of 11. Came to New York in 1916, conducted for army bands during the First World War, and became an arranger for Broadway musicals in the early 1920s. He was involved in the original runs of such classic productions as "Rose-Marie", "The Band Wagon", "Show Boat", "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", "Kiss Me Kate", "South Pacific", "The King and I", "The Sound of Music", "My Fair Lady", and "Camelot", where he worked extensively with Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Rodgers & Hammerstein. More often than not, he was involved in the Hollywood versions of the stage shows; during the period 1936-1958, Bennett was involved in over 30 musicals, winning an Academy Award in 1955. In addition to his film and theatre work, Bennett wrote a number of acclaimed classical pieces, including His compositions include an opera "Maria Malibran", several symphonies and concertos, many classical dance works based on traditional American tuners, and a symphonic tribute to songwriter Jerome Kern. He is also a former president of the NAACC. He died in 1981, aged 86.
Highlight Scores: Swing Time, Showboat, Shall We Dance, Pacific Liner, Carefree, Intermezzo, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Journey Into Fear, Oklahoma!.
Awards: Academy Award for "Oklahoma!" (1955). Academy Award nomination for "Pacific Liner" (1938).
David Bergeaud
Born:
Background: Cult French-Canadian composer, best known for his work on the sci-fi series “Earth 2” and the 1997 fantasy/adventure “Prince Valiant”. Began his career in the late 1980s, working on a number of low-budget American and Canadian features, before coming to international prominence in 1994 as a result of “Earth 2”. Went on to score episodes of “The Outer Limits” and “The Badge” in Hollywood, and wrote a couple of documentary scores for investigative filmmaker Nick Broomfield, but has generally failed to capitalise on the opportunities his mid-90s successes gave him. Recently, Bergeaud has been seen assisting Bill Conti, working on the Canadian sc-fi TV series “FreakyLinks”, and contributing scores to Insomniac’s “Ratchet and Clank” video game series.
Highlight Scores: Vanishing Son, Earth 2, Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Prince Valiant, Kurt & Courtney, The Badge (TV).
James Bernard
Born: 20 September 1925, India. Died: 12 July 2001.
Background: Legendary composer-in-residence at the British Hammer studio, who scored some of the greatest horror films of all time. Born in colonial India, where his father was an officer in the Army, Bernard was wducated at Wellington College in London, where the future actor Christopher Lee was a classmate, and at the Royal College of Music. Under the unofficial guidance of Benjamin Brittain, Bernard began his career in music in 1942, and joined the staff of Hammer films in 1955 at the recommendation of his old friend Lee. Over the next twenty years, Bernard would write over 30 scores almost exclusively for the studio, including such classic works as “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957), “Dracula” (1958), “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1959), and “The Devil Rides Out” (1968). Despite never receiving any formal recognition of his musical work, Bernard is nevertheless an Oscar winner, having won the award for Best Motion Picture story in 1950 for co-writing the Boulting Brothers thriller “Seven Days to Noon” with Paul Dehn. One of his final commissions was to write a new score for F.W. Murnau’s 1921 classic horror movie “Nosferatu”, starring Max Shrek, and shown as part of the Channel 4 Television series of silent movies. Bernard died in 2001, at the age of 76, after a short illness.
Highlight Scores: The Quatermass Experiment, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Devil Rides Out, The Hound of the Baskervilles, She, Torture Garden, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Taste the Blood of Dracula.
Awards: Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story for "Seven Days to Noon" (1950).
Charles Bernstein
Born:
Background: An award winning composer and author, Charles Bernstein was prodigiously talented as a child: he studied at Juillard with Roy Harris, and was conducting his own music off-Broadway at the age of 16. After gaining experience in both “music and life” touring around Europe in the 1960s, he returned home and began scoring his first movies in the early 1970s. Although he was was prolific throughout the decade, Bernstein was one of the “unsung heroes” of film music, and only truly came to international prominence after he wrote what is arguably his most famous work, the classic 1984 horror "A Nightmare on Elm Street". Has since gone on to enjoy a number of small scale successes, including a pair of Emmy nominations in 1993 and 2000 for the TV movies “The Sea Wolf” and “Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble”. Away from film music, Bernstein has a chieved a degree of acclaim for his concert pieces, most notably the powerful "Mass for the Voices of the World" (2000). Bernstein is also prolific as an author and critic (he wrote the acclaimed book "Film Music and Everything Else"), and is very active in film music politics, serving on the board of AMPAS, the SCL and ASCAP. Despite his famous surname, he is no relation to either Elmer or Leonard Bernstein.
Highlight Scores: Rosemary's Baby II, White Lightning, Mr. Majestyk, Gator, A Small Town in Texas, Viva Knievel!, Outlaw Blues, Scruples, Love at First Bite, Coast to Coast, Foolin’ Around, The Entity, Cujo, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Sadat, April Fool's Day, Deadly Friend, The Allnighter, Excessive Force, The Sea Wolf, Miss Evers' Boys, Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble.
Links: Official Site.
Leonard Bernstein
Born: 25 August 1918, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Died: 14 October 1990.
Background: Enormously famous, popular, and talented composer conductor, arranger, pianist, educator, author and TV/radio host. Played the piano as a child, and studied at Harvard University, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson. Served his apprenticeship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and took his first permanent conducting post in 1943, as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. After a career-making performance that same year, Bernstein quickly rose to become one of America’s most revered classical music figures of the 20th Century. He was Head of the New York Symphony from 1945-1948, and music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 until his death. He was largely responsible for bringing classical music to the American mainstream, not only through his massively popular compositions, but also through his numerous public appearances, and for his series of "Young People's Concerts" that ran from 1959-1972. Among Bernstein’s classical works are the operas “Candide” and “Trouble in Tahiti”, the ballet “Fancy Free” (which later became the Hollywood musical “On The Town”), the Broadway musical “Wonderful Town”, and three symphonies (“Jeremiah”, “The Age of Anxiety” and “Kaddish)”, and many others. However, Bernstein will probably always be remembered for his wonderful “West Side Story”, a Broadway updating of the Romeo and Juliet story transposed to modern day New York. The original musical, and the subsequent 1961 movie, are classics of the genre. Bernstein also wrote one original film score, the Elia Kazan’s 1954 boxing classic “On The Waterfront” starring Marlon Brando. Bernstein died of a heart attack in 1990, aged 72.
Highlight Scores: On The Town, On The Waterfront, West Side Story.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Dramatic Score for "On The Waterfront" (1955). Also won four Emmy Awards for various arts and entertainment programmes between 1958-1976.
Links: Official Site
Peter Bernstein
Born: 10 April 1951, New York, New York.
Background: As the son of the legendary film composer Elmer Bernstein, Peter Bernstein was seemingly destined to become involved in film music at some point in his career. After completing his studies, Peter (and his sister Emilie) worked as an orchestrator for his father in the early 1980s, on “Meatballs”, “Stripes” and others, before branching out and writing his own music full-time later in the decade. Early successes for films such as “Bolero” and the Star Wars spin-off “Ewok Adventure” movies seemed to promise great things, but unfortunately Bernstein’s family connections failed to see him continue to snag high profile assignments, and he has spent much of his time since then contributing music to TV movies of the week, and episodic drama series such as “Freddy’s Nightmares”, “Tales from the Crypt”, “Walker: Texas Ranger”, “Chicago Hope”, and most recently “Stargate SG-1”. Bernstein still occasionally writes ‘additional music’ for his father, on films such as “Canadian Bacon” and “Wild Wild West”.
Highlight Scores: Silent Rage, National Lampoon’s Class Reunion, Hot Dog: The Movie, Bolero, The Ewok Adventures, Canadian Bacon, Rough Riders, Megiddo.
Steven Bernstein
Born: New York, New York.
Background: Talented animation composer who has built a career scoring cartoon series, specifically for Warner Brothers. Began his as a trumpeter, before going to enjoy a multi-faceted career as music director of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, co-leader of the trio Spanish Fly, arranger and leader of the Kansas City Band, and leader of the gritty cover band, Sex Mob. Made his film music debut debut in 1991, and cut his teeth working on the Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking series "Animaniacs" under the tutelage of veteran animation composer Richard Stone, before going on to work with his old friend John Lurie on "Get Shorty" (1995). In addition to composing, Bernstein has played and recorded with artists as disparate as Tricky, Foetus, Aretha Franklin, Mel Torme, They Might Be Giants, Bootsy Collins and Don Byron, and is fostering a reputation as one of Hollywood's up-and-coming orchestrators, having recently worked with James Horner and David Williams amongst others. He is married to fellow composer Julie Meerbaum-Bernstein; he is no relation to Elmer.
Highlight Scores: Animaniacs (TV), Pinky and the Brain (TV), Histeria (TV), Wakko's Wish (TV).
Peter Best
Born: 18 October 1943, Adelaide, Australia.
Background: One of the premier film music composers from Australia, Peter Best scored his first film in 1972 as part of the creative team behind the popular Barry McKenzie movies. Achieved international success following his work on the "Crocodile Dundee" movies of the mid-1980s, but with one major exception (“Muriel’s Wedding” in 1995) has since largely disappeared off the international radar, concentrating instead on scoring films from his home country. Best has won four AFI Awards (Australian Oscars).
Highlight Scores: The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Petersen, The Picture Show Man, An Indecent Obsession, Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Dundee II, Heroes, Muriel's Wedding, Country Life, Dad and Dave: On Our Selection, Doing Time for Patsy Cline.
Kurt Bestor
Born: 1967, Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Background: A talented composer and multi-instrumentalist, Kurt Bestor gained fame in the US in the mid-1980s following the release of his album "Kurt Bestor Christmas", an album of innovative interpretations of seasonal carols. Born into a musical household (Bestor’s grandfather played trumpet in Tommy Dorsey's orchestra and a great uncle played trombone in Jack Benny's band), he played piano as a child and, seeking a career in film, attended the Sundance Film Institutes Film Composer Lab in 1987. After the success of his Christmas album in 1988, Bestor began scoring movies full-time in 1991 and has scored over 40 feature-length films, IMAX movies, and animated films since that time. Currently, Bestor still plays annually to sell-out audiences across the west with his Christmas shows (aimed at fans of his debut album), which he describes as "Garrison Keillor-meets-Mannhein Steamroller-meets-John Williams". He has collaborated professionally with artists such as Vanessa Williams, Bob Hope, Dolly Parton, Kenny Loggins and Donny Osmond, and conducted his music during the Closing Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He lives in Utah with his wife and children.
Highlight Scores: Sedona (IMAX), The Great America West (IMAX), The Ghost of Dickens Past, The Witching of Ben Wagner, It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas, The Buttercream Gang, Split Infinity, Behind the Waterfall.
Links: Official Site
Amin Bhatia
Born: Toronto, Canada.
Background: Canadian composer of Indian heritage who has enjoyed a modicum of success writing for B-movies and TV projects. His career began after he won first prize in a synthesiser programming competition sponsored by Roland in 1981, and decided that he wanted to write music for a living then and there. He became involved in film music in the late 1980s, assisting composers such as David Foster and Steve Porcaro, and released a solo album on Capitol Records' Cinema label titled "Interstellar Suite", for which Bhatia combined and layered hundreds of electronic parts to achieve a warm orchestral sound which reflected his “love of Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams film scores” and highlighted his tenacity by on using analogue synthesizers in a world where everyone else had gone digital. Following the success of the “Interstellar Suite”, Bhatia has become a "jobbing" composer-for-hire on the Canadian and US circuit, whose staple assignments are straight-to-video action thrillers, although he has recently struck up a surprisingly fruitful collaboration with Hong Kong action director John Woo’s on his lower-budget projects.
Highlight Scores: Iron Eagle II, Anything for Love, Gridlock, Stranger In The Mirror, John Woo's Violent Tradition, John Woo’s Once a Thief, Detention.
Links: Bhatia Music
Nick Bicât
Born:
Background: Prolific arranger, songwriter, and composer in England, whose scores have graced British TV productions for over 25 years. Began his career writing music for theatre groups in the south of England, before eventually going on to work with the National Theatre in London, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he struck up a long-lasting relationship with writer/director David Hare. Wrote his first score in 1976, and has since gone on to write consistently for film and television, most notably for the BBC, on projects such as “A Christmas Carol”, “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, “Oliver Twist” and the popular mini-series “If Tomorrow Comes” and “Heat of the Sun”. In addition to his film work, Bicât has written many classical pieces (notably the contemporary orchestral work "Under The Eye Of Heaven"), songs for popular artists such as P.J. Harvey (“Who Will Love Me Now?”) and Beverley Craven, and several stage musicals - one of which, “Peer Gynt”, was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award.
Highlight Scores: The Scarlet Pimpernel, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Lace, Stealing Heaven, The Reflecting Skin, The Hawk, The Passion of Darkly Noon, Stella Does Tricks, Holding On, Last Christmas.
Links: Official Site

Jay Blackton
Born: 25 March 1909, New York, New York. Died: 8 January 1994.
Background: Real name Jacob Schwartzdorf. Composer, conductor, pianist and arranger, best known for his long-standing association with the classic musical “Oklahoma!”. Prodigiously talented as a child, Blackton gave his first piano concerto at the Brooklyn Academy of Music at age 12. Studied at the Juilliard School of Music, and first came to prominence when he was resident conductor at the St. Louis Municipal Opera from 1937-42. At the behest of Oscar Hammerstein, Blackton began his career as an arranger on Broadway in the mid 1940s, and subsequently worked on productions of “Annie Get Your Gun”, “Miss Liberty”, “Call Me Madam” and “Mr. President” for Irving Berlin, as well as “Wish You Were Here”, Redhead” and of course “Oklahoma!”. In total, Blackton conducted the orchestra for three major productions of “Oklahoma!” - the original 1943 Broadway stage version, the 1955 film version, and the 1979 Broadway revival – each of which featured orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett. Despite his reputation, Blackton only dipped his toes in the Hollywood waters: apart from “Oklahoma!”, Blackton’s only other credits were as music director for MGM's “The Merry Widow” (1952), and composing “additional music” to supplement Frank Loesser's score for the 1955 film “Guys And Dolls”. He died of a heart attack in 1994, aged 84.
Highlight Scores: The Merry Widow, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, Snow White Live (TV).
Awards: Academy Award for "Oklahoma!" (1955).
Arthur Bliss
Born: 2 August 1891, London, England. Died: 28 March 1975.
Background: Pioneer of the British film music industry and a familiar figure on the classical English musical scene during the first half of the 20th century. Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was attending the Royal College of Music when his studies were interrupted by the start of World War One. Bliss’s reputation as a composer was cemented during the 1920s, while he was conductor of the Portsmouth Philharmonic Society, and during which time he wrote some of his most celebrated early pieces, notably “Madame Noy” and “Rout”, and the mesmerising film score “Things To Come” (1936), written for the classic British sci-fi film based on the works of H.G. Wells, and which remains one of the best British film scores of all time. Bliss was in the USA when WWII broke out in 1939, and he remained there to teach at Berkeley until 1941, when he returned to England to take an administrative job at the BBC, soon becoming director of music in 1942. Among his most notable classical works are “Introduction and Allegro”, which was dedicated to the Philadelphia Orchestra and its conductor Leopold Stokowski, “Morning Heroes”, a deeply personal choral symphony written as a tribute to those who died on World War I, the large-scale “Meditations on a Theme of John Blow”, an opera for television, and various other sonatas and concertos. Knighted by King George VI in 1950, and was Master of the Queen's Musick from 1953 until his death in 1975 aged 83.
Highlight Scores: Things to Come, Conquest of the Air, Christopher Columbus, The Beggar's Opera, Seven Waves Away.
Philippe Blumenthal
Born: 2 December 1969, Solothurn, Switzerland.
Background: A respected film and TV composer in his native Switzerland, Philippe Blumenthal is probably better known in internet circles as the editor of the German-language publication "The Film Music Journal", and for being a regular contributor to many online forums. Having won a prize for the music he wrote for “V.R.” at a film festival in Luzern, he was hired to score his first film, “General Sutter” in 1999.
Highlight Scores: V.R., Kilometer 11, Leo's Freunde, General Sutter.
Chris Boardman
Born: 29 April 1954, Glendale, California.
Background: Born in California but raised in Ogden, Utah, Boardman studied at Weber State University and Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles, gaining musical experience by hanging around recording studios and seeing how professionals worked. Began his career as the music director for singer Mitzi Gaynor, and subsequently worked with Tom Jones, Seals and Crofts, and other Las Vegas club acts, before heading to Hollywood in the mid-1980s. He began his life there as an orchestrator and arranger for composers such as Ralph Burns, Quincy Jones and Bruce Broughton, and "hit the big time" with his Oscar nomination for "The Color Purple" in 1985. Is now widely regarded as one of the most talented composers, arrangers and orchestrators in film music, having worked on over 100 movies and with virtually all the top composers, and scored many popular and successful films in his own right. In addition to this, Boardman worked with veteran TV music director Ian Fraser, receiving six Emmys for music direction on such prestigious specials as "Julie Andrews in Concert" and "Christmas in Washington". Boardman is also a member of the pioneering contemporary jazz ensemble Wishful Thinking, and has collaborated professionally with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Kenny G, David Foster and Vanessa Williams.
Highlight Scores: Raw Deal, The Color Purple, Youngblood, Bordello of Blood, Payback, Bruno, Spy Kids, Gleason.
Awards: Oscar nomination for "The Color Purple" (1985), six Emmy Awards for various work as a music director.
Links: Official Site.
Claude Bolling
Born: 10 April 1930, Cannes, France.
Background: World famous French jazz pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, who virtually defined the concept of jazz-classical crossover with his groundbreaking work "Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano" with Jean-Pierre Rampal, which stayed Number 1 on the US Billboard's charts for a phenomenal 464 weeks from 1975-1983. Studied at the Nice Conservatoire, and then in Paris with Lionel Hampton, and was playing piano professionally by the age of 14. Scored his first film, a documentary about the Cannes Film Festival in 1959, and has since clocked up over 100 credits, including American successes such as “California Suite” in 1979. As a jazz pianist, Bolling has released over 30 albums of original music, and had worked with many other musicians, from different genres, including Alexandre Lagoya, Pinchas Zukerman, Maurice André and Yo Yo Ma. He has also worked with, and performed tributes to many others, including Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson. Bolling continues to be active in both the jazz and film worlds, having recently received a César (French Oscar) nomination for his work on the 1999 film “Chance or Coincidence”.
Highlight Scores: Borsalino, Le Magnifique, Catch Me a Spy, Silver Bears, California Suite, The Awakening, Willie & Phil, The Bay Boy, Chance or Coincidence.
Links: Official Site.
Bernardo Bonezzi
Born: 6 July 1964, Madrid, Spain.
Background: Talented young Spanish composer who has already built up a solid reputation since making his film music debut in the early 1980s. Began his career as a rock musician, as a member of the successful band Los Zombies, who had a major hit, “Groenlandia” in the late 1970s. Began his film career working as the resident composer for director Pedro Almodovar on films such as “Labyrinth of Passion”, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”, “Matador”, “The Law of Desire” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”, before broadening his horizons towards the end of the 1980s. Has since gone on to score a number of successful films in his native Spain, but none yet internationally: he won a Goya (Spanish Oscar) in 1995 for “Nadie Hablara de Nosotras Cuando Hayamos Muerto”, and continues to be popular domestically.
Highlight Scores: Labyrinth of Passion, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Matador, The Law of Desire, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Todo Por la Pasta, Nadie Hablara de Nosotras Cuando Hayamos Muerto, Sin Noticias de Dios.
Links: Official Site.
Luís Bonfá
Born: 17 October 1922, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Died: 12 January 2001.
Background: Born Luiz Floriano Bonfá, he was one of the pioneers of Brazilian music, along with contemporaries such as Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto. Originally a classical guitarist, Bonfá began writing scores for Brazilian movies in the late 1940s, and introduced the world to the sound of the samba and the bossa nova in 1959 when 'Manha de Carnival', the main theme from the film "Black Orpheus" became a world-wide hit. Continued to score films in his native country, and wrote songs for the likes of Elvis Presley and Stan Getz, but never truly recaptured the burst of energy that brought him his initial fame. Was enjoying a career renaissance in the 1990s through the release of the albums 'Non-Stop Brazil' and 'Bonfá Magic', but he sadly died of cancer in 2001, aged 78.
Highlight Scores: Black Orpheus, Os Cafajestes, Live a Little Love a Little.
Perry Botkin Jr.
Born: 16 April 1933, New York, New York.
Background: American composer and arranger, the son of Perry Botkin Sr., who spent 17 years as Bing Crosby guitar accompanist. First came to prominence in the early 1970s when, along with his friend and co-composer Barry DeVorzon, he received an Oscar nomination for the score to "Bless the Beasts and Children". This theme was subsequently used as the theme for the popular daytime soap “The Young and the Restless”, and provided Botkin with income royalties for life! Continued to be active throughout the 1970s and early 80s, writing music for films such as “Skyjacked” “Goin’ South” and the classic horror “Silent Night Deadly Night”, as well as episodic underscore for series such as “Happy Days”, “Laverne & Shirley”, “Adam’s Rib” and “Mork & Mindy”. In addition to his film work, Botkin was a prolific arranger in the pop world, having worked with artists ranging from The Righteous Brothers, The Lettermen and Connie Stevens to Jennifer Warnes, Nilsson, Jose Feliciano, Carly Simon and Wayne Newton. Retired from commercial music in 1990, and has since begun a series of experiments with electronic music, the culmination of which has been the release of three critically acclaimed albums, “Combines”, “Combines 2” and “Combines 3”.
Highlight Scores: Bless the Beasts and Children, Skyjacked, Lady Ice, Goin' South, Tarzan the Ape Man, Silent Night Deadly Night, The Young and the Restless (TV), Mork & Mindy (TV).
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "Bless the Beasts and Children" (1971).
Links: Official Site.
Pieter Bourke
Born:
Background: Australian composer, percussionist, audio engineer and mixer, who first gained international fame as a member of the alternative musical group Dead Can Dance. Began collaborating with Lisa Gerrard in 1994, on her solo album “The Mirror Pool”, and Bourke’s work there led directly to his subsequent work with Dead Can Dance, and in film. Gerrard and Bourke contributed “additional music” to Michael Mann’s film “Heat” in 1995, and made their solo debut writing music for the Ivorian film “Nadro” in 1998. Golden Globe nominations for both “The Insider” and “Ali” cememted his reputation, but whereas Gerrard has since gone on to collaborate with Hans Zimmer and score film in her own right, Bourke has instead returned to his pop and world music roots. Recently, Bourke has released several album of solo music, notably “Duality” and “Secret Masters”, and has enjoyed a successful collaboration with Australian composer/DJ David Thrussell, using the pseudonyms Soma, Snog and Black Lung.
Highlight Scores: Nadro, The Insider, Ali.
Awards: Golden Globe nominations for "The Insider" (1999) and "Ali" (2001).
Links: Official Site
Phil Boutelje
Born: 6 August 1895, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Died: 29 July 1979.
Background: Pianist, songwriter composer, author and conductor, educated at Philadelphia Music Academy. He was a pianist and arranger for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, and a military bandmaster during the first World War. Came to Hollywood in the early 1930s, where he was employed as a music director for Paramount Pictures, and later United Artists Studios. Worked on over 30 films in a 20 year career, picking up two Oscar nominations for “The Great Victor Herbert” in 1940 and “Hi Diddle Diddle” in 1944. Many of his scores were written on an uncredited basis, although he was an accomplished songwriter, having collaborated with Ned Washington, Dick Winfree, Harry Tobias, Rubey Cowan, Foster Carling, and Al Dubin on classics such as "China Boy", "Blue Dawn" and “Little Doll”. Scored his last film in 1950 but that was not the end of his story: after retiring to the Motion Picture Country Home at Woodland Hills, California, Boutelje met and fell in love with former silent movie actress Babe London; they married in 1975 – when he was 80 and she was 74 – and lived their final years together at the home, until his death in 1979 aged 83.
Highlight Scores: Desire, The Princess Comes Across, The Great Victor Herbert, Strike Up the Band, The Lady Eve, Hi Diddle Diddle.
Awards: Academy Award nominations for "The Great Victor Herbert" (1939) and "Hi Diddle Diddle" (1943).
Euel Box
Born:
Background: American composer who has spent his entire writing music for the cinematic adventures of Benji the Dog, and those directed by Benji’s creator, Joe Camp. Began his career as a jingle writer with PAMS (Production, Advertising, Merchandising & Service) in Dallas, and first appeared on the film music scene in 1974 when, in collaboration with his wife Betty, Box won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for the song “I Feel Love” from the original Benji film. Over the next decade, Box would write for half a dozen more Benji/Camp films, but other than penning the famous Radio London “Sonowaltz” theme, has done little else. He hasn’t scored a film since 1987.
Highlight Scores: Benji, For the Love of Benji, Oh Heavenly Dog, Benji the Hunted.
Awards: Golden Globe for "Benji" (1974). Academy Award nomination for "Benji".
Steve Bramson
Born:
Background: Respected composer and orchestrator, who has collaborated with many of Hollywood's top names, including James Horner, Randy Newman, Bruce Broughton and Basil Poledouris. Began his career in the early 80s as an assistant to composer Laurence Rosenthal, and made his compositional debut scoring episodes of the hit CBS TV series “Jake and the Fatman” starring William Conrad and Joe Penny. He is probably best known for his work on the CBS TV series “JAG”, for which he has written over 150 hours of music since. He has also been involved in writing music for series such as George Lucas’s “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, Steven Spielberg’s “Tiny Toon Adventures”, and a handful of feature films, including the recent animated movie “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island”. In addition to his film work, Bramson wrote the music for the "Space Mountain" theme-park attraction at Disneyland Paris, has had his classical compositions performed in New York and London, was instrumental in developing the mentor program for the Society of Composers and Lyricists, is a consultant to ASCAP's composer workshop, and lectures at UCLA. He is also currently working on a stage musical, “Shimmy”, in collaboration with choreographer Donald McKayle and lyricist Pamela Phillips Oland.
Highlight Scores: JAG (TV), Young Indiana Jones (TV), Tiny Toon Adventures (TV), Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
Awards: Emmy for "Tiny Toon Adventures" (1990). Two further Emmy nominations for "JAG" (1995).
Links: Official Site.
Angelo Branduardi
Born: 12 February 1950, Cuggiono, Italy.
Background: Italian singer/songwriter and composer, famous for his enormous hair-style, who enjoyed a heyday across Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Played the violin as a child in Genoa, and began his career as an artist supporting musical groups in Italy in 1973. Began to raise his profile with the release of his first self-titled album in 1974, and followed it up with “Alla Fiera dell’Est” which became a European smash, and initiated the first of a series of tours under the ‘Carovana del Mediterraneo’ banner, which culminates with him playing to an audience of more than 200,000 in Paris. Branduardi scored his first film, “State Bone se Potete” for director Luigi Magni, in 1983, and subsequently won the the David Award (Italian Oscar) for his troubles. As a film composer, Branduardi only wrote for four other films, his last coming in 1987. As a solo artist, Branduardi continues to record prolifically and tour extensively across Europe: among his most celebrated releases are the albums “Pane e Rose” (1988), “Il Ladro” (1990), “Domenica e Lunedi” (1994), “Futuro Antico” (1996), and a greatest hits collection in 1999.
Highlight Scores: State Bone se Potete, Momo, Secondo Ponzio Pilate, Luci Lontante.
Links: Official Site.
Goran Bregovic
Born: 22 March 1950, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Background: Highly respected classical and world music composer from the former Yugoslavia, who often specialises in French and art-house films. Began his career in the late 1970s as the singer and lead guitarist of the popular Yugoslav folk/rock band Bijelo Dugme, who sold more than 15 million records in their heyday, and who are regoignises as being the first group of this kind to introduce "shepperd's rock" into popular Yugoslav music. Bregovic was already composing music for Serbo-Croat films in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but did not begin to concentrate fully on film until 1989, when he received international acclaim for his work on the respected Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica’s film “Time of the Gypsies”. Bregovic fled Yugoslavia at the beginning of the civil war in 1992, and now lives in Paris, from where he has written for a number of successful and popular international films. He is the composer of choice for Kusturica, and has also worked extensively in French cinema, on films such as “Queen Margot” (1994, for which he was nominated for a Cesar (French Oscar) and “Train of Life” (1998). Away from film, Bregovic has also written music for theatre (notably “Cabaret of the Balkans, a multimedia projects staged in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1997), dramatic performances of “Hamlet” and Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, and a Balkan version of the opera “Carmen” – with a happy ending!
Highlight Scores: The Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, Queen Margot, Underground, A Chef In Love, The Serpent's Kiss, Train of Life, The Lost Son, Tuvalu.
Links: Official Site.
Leslie Bricusse
Born: 29 January 1931, London, England.
Background: Successful and popular British composer and lyricist, best known for his many collaborations with actor and singer Anthony Newley. Attended Cambridge University, where he was a member of the Footlights revue troupe, before coming to prominence following the success of his West End play "Stop the World I Want to Get Off" in 1961. Bricusse quickly became one of the most prolific and popular British stage songwriters of the post-war era, having been involved with several hit shows in London and on Broadway, and having songs recorded by Max Bygraves, Shirley Bassey and others. He first became involved in film in 1964, collaborating with John Barry on the lyrics for “Goldfinger”, and enjoyed a run of subsequent successes through the 1960s and 70s that included titles such as “Doctor Dolittle” (1967), “Goodbye Mr. Chips” (1969), “Scrooge” (1970) and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971). He collaborated regularly with John Williams, attaching song lyrics to Williams’ music on films such as “Penelope” (1966), “A Guide for the Married Man” (1967), “Superman” (1978), and most recently “Home Alone” (1990) and “Hook” (1991), and was nominated for ten Oscars, six Golden Globes and four Grammys in the process. His most famous tunes include "If I Ruled The World", "What Kind of Fool Am I?", "Talk to the Animals", “Thank You Very Much” and the legendary “Oompa Loompa” song. Recently, Bricusse has returned to his stage roots, having been involved with a West End production of a "Jekyll and Hyde" musical.
Highlight Scores: Doctor Dolittle, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Scrooge, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Victor/Victoria, Bullseye, collaborations with John Williams (Superman, Home Alone, Hook) and John Barry (Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice).
Awards: Academy Awards for Doctor Dolittle and Victor/Victoria, eight other Oscar nominations, six Golden Globe nominations.
David Bridie
Born: Melbourne, Australia.
Background: Australian musician, producer, songwriter and composer, hugely popular domestically as both a soundtrack artist and a musician in his own right. Began his career as a member of the critically acclaimed band Not Drowning Waving, while simultaneously working with the more mainstream rock group My Friend The Chocolate Cake. Made his film music debut in 1987, and achieved a modicum of international success before wowing Australia (and picking up every award imaginable) for his score for the 1999 film “In A Savage Land”. Has since gone on to work on a number of successful films, including the Billy Connolly/Judi Davis vehicle “The Man Who Sued God” (2002) and the IMAX feature “Land Beyond Time”. Away from film, Bridie has produced albums for artists such as Christine Anu, Archie Roach, Monique Brumby and Papua New Guinea artist Telek, and released two solo albums, “Acts of Free Choice” and the award-winning “Hotel Radio”.
Highlight Scores: That Eye the Sky, The Myth of Fingerprints, Tulip, In a Savage Land, The Man Who Sued God, Tempted.
Links: Official Site.
Jon Brion
Born:
Background: A talented singer/songwriter, Brion began his career in 1994 as a member of the popular rock group The Grays, whose album "Ro Sham Bo" was a critical success. A mainstay of the Los Angeles music scene, he subsequently undertook successful collaborations with artists as varied as Fiona Apple, David Byrne, Susanna Hoffs, Rufus Wainwright, The Eels, and Aimee Mann, and enjoyed a fruitful sideline as a competent studio musician, specialising in guitar. His collaboration with Mann, and her arranger Michael Penn, led directly to his association with director Paul Thomas Anderson when Penn asked him to help out with some scoring arranging work on "Hard Eight" (1997). Brion subsequently worked with Anderson on "Magnolia" and "Punch-Drunk Love", the second of which earned him a Grammy nomination, and has recently begun to attract attention from other similarly-minded directors, notably Michel Gondry on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and David O’ Russell on “I Heart Huckabees” (2004). In addition to his expanding film work, Brion currently performs an immensely popular, semi-improvisational cabaret act at Los Angeles nightclub, Largo, every Friday night, and has recently released a solo album entitled “Meaningless”.
Highlight Scores: Hard Eight, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees.
Links: Official Site
Benjamin Britten
Born: 22 November 1913, Lowestoft, England. Died: 4 December 1976.
Background: One of the most important British classical composers of the 20th century, with a repertoire of important classical pieces that receive regular performance across the world. Studied at the Royal College of Music under Arthur Benjamin and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and began his career in music writing original music for documentaries produced by the British Post Office, and writing music for stage plays in and around London, often in collaboration with poet W.H. Auden. After returning from a 4-year trip to America with his life partner Peter Pears, Britten premiered his major work, the opera “Paul Bunyan” in 1942, to great acclaim. Over the next thirty years, Britten would go on to created a staggering number of highly respected and critically acclaimed works, including the operas "Peter Grimes" (1945), "The Rape of Lucretia" (1947), "Albert Herring" (1947), "Gloriana" (1953), "The Turn of the Screw" (1954), "Billy Budd" (1960), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1960), and "Death in Venice" 91973) almost all of which have been used in film, or subsequently filmed for television. Britten has also written numerous choral works (including the “Hymn to St. Cecilia” and “Ceremony of Carols” in 1942), a piano concerto, a violin concerto, a cello symphony, and the popular “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” (1946). However, arguably Britten’s most famous work is the staggering “War Requiem”, written in 1961 to commemorate the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed during WWII, and with lyrics based on the famous poems of Wilfred Owen. His only actual film score was written for the 1937 Agatha Christie drama “Love from a Stranger”, directed by Rowland Lee and starring Basil Rathbone and Anne Harding. He died, after a long and rich career, in 1976, aged 62.
Highlight Scores: Love from a Stranger.
Jeff Britting
Born: 11 December 1957, Berkeley, California.
Background: American renaissance man – composer, producer, writer, director, editor, administrator – who currently makes his living as an archivist at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California. Studied music and philosophy at USC, and (as a composer) has since gone on to score thirteen stage works, five films (two features and three shorts) and various instrumental and vocal works. Britting was part of the team which made the Oscar-nominated documentary "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life", and as well as editing and associate-producing the movie, was also asked to provide its score. Other notable achievements include composing “Sonatina for Octavin”, a score commissioned by composer and American rare instrument specialist, Franklin H. Stover; composing the score for “Ideal”, a 54-minute film adapted from the adaptation of the Ayn Rand play; and directing “Still Negative…After All These Years”, a one-man show written by and starring Simon Harvey. He is currently finishing an original opera based on his own libretto, set in the Middle Ages.
Highlight Scores: Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, Ideal.
Links: Ayn Rand Institute
Michael Brook
Born: 1952, Toronto, Canada.
Background: Talented Canadian multi-instrumentalist, performer and producer, who has become a regular “guest artist” on arthouse feature scores. Studied electronic music at York University in Toronto with Jon Hassell and La Monte Young and, played guitar in blues and rock bands in his home city, before becoming involved in the avant-garde musical worlds of artists such as Hassell, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in the late 1970s. Was involved with the music of several bands – Flivva, The Everglades and Martha and the Muffins – and played on numerous albums and at numerous sessions during the early 1980s. Produced albums for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, John Cale and Sinead O'Connor, and released several albums as a solo artist, notably "Hybrid" in 1987, and "Cobalt Blue" in 1992. Scored his first film in 1986, and enjoyed an international success through his work on the Oscar-winning drama “Affliction” in 1999. Continues to be active across musical genres, and has recently become an irregular member of Hans Zimmer's musical troupe.
Highlight Scores: Captive, Albino Alligator, The Diver, Affliction, Buddy Boy, India: Kingdom of the Tiger, Charlotte Sometimes.
Links: Michael Brook's Breakdown
Dirk Brossé
Born: 1960, Ghent, Belgium.
Background: Belgium's foremost film music composer. Studied at the Royal Music Conservatory in Ghent and the Musikhochschule in Cologne. Is a renowned conductor on the international classical scene, having worked with many of the world's finest orchestras. Scored his first films in Belgium in 1985, and has since gone on to score over a dozen features in Belgium and the Netherlands, including the Oscar-nominated “Daens” (1992). In addition to his film work, Brossé has also written a symphony for the 1992 World Fair in Seville, and ancient work entitled "The Birth of Music", clarinet and violin conertos, and three song cycles. He is music director of the Tokyo International Music Festival and the Flanders Film Festival, and has been deemed the "Cultural Ambassador of Flanders" by the Belgian government.
Highlight Scores: Koko Flanel, Daens, When The Light Comes, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
Links: Official Site
Ian Broudie
Born: 4 August 1958, Liverpool, England.
Background: Accomplished producer, singer and songwriter, most famous for his work as the lead singer and songwriter for the popular Britpop band The Lightning Seeds. As a producer Broudie has worked with artists such as Dodgy, Echo & the Bunnymen, Alison Moyet, and Republica, and had a major hit song all over Europe in 1996 when he teamed up with TV comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel to release the single "Three Lions (Football's Coming Home)", which coincided with the European Football Championships held in England. Made his film music debut in 2000, working with composer Michael Gibbs on the British working class comedy ”Purely Belter”.
Highlight Scores: Purely Belter.
Links: Lightning Seeds
Nacio Herb Brown
Born: 22 February 1896, Deming, New Mexico. Died: 28 September 1964.
Background: Hollywood songwriter and music director who will forever be associated with “Singin’ in the Rain”. Studied at the Musical Arts High School in Los Angeles, California, and was briefly worked as a tailor and in real estate before becoming a composer. Was hired by MGM in 1928 to be a part of their music department, and made his debut as the bandleader for the “Broadway Melody of 1929”. Subsequently wrote songs for other such “Broadway Melody” and “Hollywood Revue” movies throughout the 1930s, and original underscore for films such as “Montana Moon” (1930), “One Heavenly Night” (1931), “The Barbarian” (1933), and the classic Marx Brothers comedy “A Night at the Opera” (1935), but it is for his songs that he will be remembered. Working with long-time lyricist and co-composer Arthur Freed, Brown’s best known songs include “Beautiful Girl”, “All I Do Is Dream Of You”, “Would You?”, “You Were Meant For Me”, “You Are My Lucky Star”, “Broadway Rhythm”, “Good Morning”, “Make ‘Em Laugh”, and the legendary “Singin’ in the Rain”, most of which featured in the 1952 film of the same name, but which were in actual fact already in existence prior to being immortalised there. Brown died in 1964, aged 68.
Highlight Scores: Broadway Melody of 1929, Hollywood Revue of 1929, Montana Moon, One Heavenly Night, Speak Easily, The Barbarian, Broadway Melody of 1936, A Night at the Opera, Singin’ in the Rain.
Robert Brunner
Born: 9 January 1938, Pasadena, California.
Background: Stalwart Disney composer of the 1970s and early 80s, a part of the Magic Kingdom's prolific team headed by the late Buddy Baker. Studied at UCLA with Helen Dixon, Lionel Taylor and Alfred Sendrey, and was the recipient of a Young Musicians Foundation scholarship, a Bank of America Achievement Award, and two composer awards from the University of Redlands Symphony during the 1950s. After completing his national service, Brunner began his career conducting, before joining the Disney roster in 1964. Enjoyed a 20 year career at Disney, working on a number of successful live action films (he never scored an animation). Is now virtually retired, having not scored a movie since 1982.
Highlight Scores: That Darn Cat!, Robin Crusoe USN, Blackbeard's Ghost, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Boatniks, The Barefoot Executive, Now You See Him Now You Don't, The Strongest Man in the World, Gus, Amy.
George Bruns
Born: 3 July 1914, Portland, Oregon. Died: 23 May 1983.
Background: Acclaimed composer and virtuoso trombone and tuba player who was resident musical director for Disney during the 1960s and 70s. Studied at Oregon State University, and began his career as a soloist with jazz bands in the 1940s. Worked with Harry Owens, the Castle Jazz Band, and Turk Murphy, and was musical director of radio station KEX in Portland, Oregon, before moving to Los Angeles to work as a session musician in the film industry. Was hired by the Disney empire in 1954 and was involved immediately in defining the musical sound of their animated features, beginning with “Sleeping Beauty” in 1955. Bruns was responsible for co-ordinating the music across the organisation for the next 20 years, overseeing animated films such as “101 Dalmatians” (1961), “The Sword in the Stone” 91963) and “The Jungle Book” (1967), co-ordinating the weekly shows of the “Mickey Mouse Club”, and writing songs for Disney theme park rides, "Yo Ho" from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and the "Ballad of Davy Crockett" from Frontierland. Retired to his native Oregon at the end of the 1970s, and died in 1983, aged 69.
Highlight Scores: Sleeping Beauty, Babes in Toyland, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Love Bug, The Aristocats, Robin Hood.
Awards: Five Oscar nominations for Disney movies between 1960-1974.
Paul Buckmaster
Born: London, England
Background: Born into a musical family (his mother was a classical pianist), Paul Buckmaster played cello from the age of four, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music. He began his career by playing and composing for various jazz ensembles in and around London, notably the Third Ear Band, before being hired to work as an arranger for David Bowie's "Space Oddity" album in 1969. Further collaborations with artists as varied as Elton John, Miles Davis, Harry Nilsson, Carly Simon, the Rolling Stones, Lionel Ritchie, Patti LaBelle, Tori Amos, Paula Abdul, Alannah Myles, Ozzy Osborne, Julian Cope, Stevie Nicks and Celine Dion made Buckmaster one of the most respected and sought-after arrangers and conductors in pop music throughout the 1970s and 80s. Buckmaster's first foray into film came in 1971 when he composed the scores for the Lewis Gilbert's "Friends" and Roman Polanski's "The Tragedy of Macbeth", the latter with the Third Ear Band. However, despite his good reputation, scoring assignments proved less than forthcoming: almost fifteen years after his debut, Buckmaster scored his only really high profile film - Terry Gilliam's "Twelve Monkeys" (1995), for which he adapted music by tango legend Astor Piazzolla into his own score. Other notable works include the TV series "Frank's Place", "Matlock", "Eerie Indiana" and "Peter Pan and the Pirates", and the features "Midnight Crossing" (1988), "Elvis" (1990), "The Rainbow Warrior" (1992), "Once Upon A Time When We Were Coloured" (1996), and the action thriller "Most Wanted", his last cinema release to date. Buckmaster has not scored a film since 1999, but remains active in the pop and rock world.
Highlight Scores: Macbeth, Twelve Monkeys, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, Most Wanted, The Maker, Murder in Mind, Mean Streak.
Awards: BAFTA Nomination 1972 - Macbeth.
Roy Budd
Born: 14 March 1947, London, England. Died: 7 August 1993.
Background: Popular and prolific British composer of the 1970s who specialised in taut thrillers and vibrant action films. Entirely self-taught, Budd was hailed as a child prodigy, playing the piano at the age of four, and appearing on TV variety shows before his 10th birthday. Formed The Roy Budd Trio in his teens, and embarked on a professional career as a jazz pianist - he was so successful he won a UK jazz poll in the category of best pianist for five years running. Began writing music for films in 1970, aged just 23, and in just ten years managed to churn out some fifty scores, including many for some of the biggest British-made box office successes of the decade, in collaboration with directors such as Ralph Nelson, Mike Hodges, Michael Winner and Delbert Mann. In addition to his film music, Budd remained an active jazz composer and musician, having performed with harmonica player Larry Adler, and arranged for artists such as Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Charles Aznavour and Caterina Valente (who became his first wife). He has just completed a new score for the 1925 silent film "The Phantom of the Opera" when he tragically died of a brain haemorrhage in 1993, aged just 46.
Highlight Scores: Soldier Blue, Get Carter, Flight of the Doves, Kidnapped, Fear is the Key, Black Windmill, The Marseille Contract, Paper Tiger, Diamonds, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, Who Dares Wins.
Awards: Golden Globe nomination for the song "My Little Friend" from Paper Tiger (1975).
Velton Ray Bunch
Born: Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Background: Popular TV composer, best known for his work on the “Quantum Leap” and “Star Trek” science fiction series. Played piano as a child, but originally intended on a career in baseball, but eventually side-stepped into music when an injury scuppered his sporting ambitions. Graduated from East Carolina University and taught underprivileged children in his nome state of North Carolina, before moving to California in the late 1970s. Through a friendship with composer Mike Post, Bunch began composing for TV in the early 1980s, writing episodic scores for shows such as "Magnum", “The A-Team”, “The Rockford Files” and "Hill Street Blues", before coming to public prominence in his own right in 1989, when he began work on "Quantum Leap". Since then, Bunch has continued to work prolifically in television, scoring hit series such as “Walker: Texas Ranger”, “Xena”, “JAG” and “Enterprise”, and working on the occasional TV movie when he can. In addition to his TV work, Bunch is also a talented arranger, having worked with Dolly Parton, Ray Charles and The Commodores among others.
Highlight Scores: Quantum Leap (TV), The Pretender (TV), Unlikely Angel, Papa's Angels, What Girls Learn, Flight 93.
Awards: Emmy nominations "Quantum Leap" (1986), "The Pretender" (1996) and "Papa's Angels" (2000).
Links: Official Site
Geoffrey Burgon
Born: 15 July 1941, Hampshire, England.
Background: Respected English film and TV composer, who is also renowned as a jazz trumpeter. Studied at the Guildhall School of Music, and began his career as a "trumpeter for hire" before switching full-time to composition in the early 1970s. Made his name writing ballet scores for Ballet Rambert and London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and received a great deal of critical acclaim for his 1976 classical piece “Requiem”, which eventually brought him to the attention of the TV world. His scores for the British TV series "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "Brideshead Revisited" gave him a degree of fame in the early 80s, and even an entry into the pop charts, but Burgon has intentionally chosen not to go down the 'Hollywood' road, claiming he finds greater inspiration working in the classical world, with occasional forays into British TV. In recent years Burgon has received critical acclaim for his work on TV series such as “Martin Chuzzlewit”, “Longitude” and “The Forstye Saga”, and continues to work almost exclusively as a freelance TV composer in England. In addition to his media work, Burgon has also written several ballets, and dozens of song cycles, and an opera, "Hard Times".
Highlight Scores: Monty Python's Life of Brian, Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy, Brideshead Revisited, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Robin Hood, Martin Chuzzlewit, Cider With Rosie, Longitude, The Forsyte Saga.
Awards: BAFTA Awards for "Longitude" (2000) and "The Forsyte Saga" (2002), nominations for "Brideshead Revisited" (1981) and "Martin Chuzzlewit" (1994).
Links: Official Site
Justin Caine Burnett
Born:
Background: A young, talented American composer, who made his name at Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures organisation. Studied at the University of Oklahoma, and moved to Los Angeles upon graduation to work for keyboard manufacturers Young Chang. Joined the Media Ventures organisation as an intern in 1996, and was soon working for Hans Zimmer on scores such as "The Rock", "The Fan", "The Peacemaker" and the German TV series “Die Motorrad-Cops”. Has gradually worked his way through the ranks, becoming more involved on a musical level, culminating in him writing the score for the ambitious fantasy epic "Dungeons and Dragons" in 2000. Burnett is now based in the Musikvernuegen studio of composer Walter Werzowa in Santa Monica, California, but still collaborates regularly with Media Ventures alumni Harry Gregson Williams, having recently worked with him on "Spy Game", "Passionada", “Phone Booth”, “Veronica Guerin” and “Man on Fire”.
Highlight Scores: Possums, Die Motorrad-Cops (TV), Dungeons and Dragons, Man on Fire.
Links: Official Site [WARNING! FLASH HEAVY!]
T-Bone Burnett
Born: 14 January 1948, St. Louis, Missouri.
Background: Real name Joseph Henry Burnett. Critically acclaimed producer and singer/songwriter, best known for his recent work as a music supervisor on movies with a country and bluegrass flavour. Began playing in blues bands around Fort Worth, Texas, where he grew up, and released his first album, ”The B-52 Band and the Fabulous Skylark”, in 1972. The success of this album brought him to the attention of legendary artists such as Bob Dylan, and throughout the 70s and early 80s, Burnett worked extensively with Dylan, David Mansfield, Pete Townshend and Ry Cooder, playing guitar on tour and producing studio albums. Resurrected his solo career in the mid-1980s, and released a number of successful solo albums, including "Truth Decay" and "Proof Through the Night", each of them featuring a colourful Texan musical style. During the late 80s and early 90s Burnett established himself as one of the music industry’s most successful and talented producers, having worked on projects with artists as varied as Counting Crows, Los Lobos, Elvis Costello and Roy Orbison. Came to prominence in the film world when he produced the massively successful "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" album for composer Carter Burwell in 2000, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 for his work on “Cold Mountain” with composer Gabriel Yared. Burnett is married to contemporary Christian singer Sam Phillips.
Highlight Scores: Gringo Majado, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Down from the Mountain, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Cold Mountain, Walk the Line.
Awards: Oscar nomination for the song 'Scarlet Tide' for "Cold Mountain" (2003). BAFTA Award nominations for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000) and “Walk the Line” (2005).
Ralph Burns
Born: 29 June 1922, Newton, Massachusetts. Died: 21 November 2001.
Background: Acclaimed composer, songwriter and bandleader, best known for his work arranging the stage musicals of Bob Fosse for the screen. Studied music at the New England Conservatory, and began his career in New York arranging and playing piano for the likes of Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman. Began to specialise in arranging music for Broadway musicals in the 1950s, and subsequently worked on hit shows such as "No Strings", "Little Me", "Funny Girl", and "Golden Boy", before being lured to Hollywood in the 1960s. His 20-year career saw him working on some of the best musicals of the period, including "Sweet Charity" (1969, with Cy Coleman), "Cabaret" (1972), “Lenny” (1974), "New York New York" (1977, with John Kander) and "All that Jazz" (1979), winning two Oscars in the process. Although he undoubtedly specialised in arranging musicals for the screen, Burns also wrote original scores for a number of successful films in the 1970s and 80s, notably “Urban Cowboy”, “Annie”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and the animated musical “All Dogs Go To Heaven”. Was in the midst of working on the stage productions of "Fosse" and "Throroughly Modern Millie" in 2001 when he suffered a stroke, and subsequently died of pneumonia, aged 79.
Highlight Scores: Sweet Charity, Cabaret, Lenny, New York New York, All That Jazz, Urban Cowboy, Annie, My Favourite Year, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Muppets Take Manhattan, All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Awards: Academy Awards for "Cabaret" (1972) and "All That Jazz" (1979). Nomination for "Annie" (1982). Emmy for Music Direction for "Baryshnikov on Broadway" (1980).
Artie Butler
Born: 2 December 1942, New York, New York.
Background: Prolific composer, arranger, music producer and songwriter, whose work in film is somewhat eclipsed by his achievements in the world of rock and pop. Largely self-taught, was discovered and hired by songwriting legends Lieber & Stoller. Made his film debut in 1971, and enjoyed a great deal of success in the 1970s and 80s, his most notable success coming through his work on the 1977 Disney animated film "The Rescuers". In addition to his film work, Butler has been Barry Manilow's music director for many years, has also worked with a variety of pop artists including Joe Cocker, Dionne Warwick, Neil Sedaka, and includes such classic titles as "What A Wonderful World", "Copacabana", "Can't Smile Without You” and "Up On The Roof" among his production credits.
Highlight Scores: What's Up Doc?, For Pete's Sake, Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins, The Rescuers, Sextette.
Links: Official Site.
R. Dale Butts
Born: 12 March 1910, Lamasco, Kentucky. Died: 1990.
Background: Full name Robert Dale Butts. Golden Age composer and arranger who worked almost exclusively for Republic Pictures during his 15-year career in Hollywood. Prodigiously talented as a child, Butts was appointed chief pianist and arranger for NBC Radio in Chicago at the age of 18, and spent thirteen years there before heading for Hollywood in the early 1940s. Joined Republic Studios as staff composer in 1943, and received an Oscar nomination for just his second score: the lively John Wayne western "Flame of Barbary Coast" (1945), directed by Joseph Kane. Between 1945 and 1958 Butts would work on over 100 movies, both as composer and music director, but he never reached the heights of fame of his contemporaries, and he retired to Santa Monica at the beginning of the 1960s. Butts died in 1990 aged 80. Interestingly, Butts was famously married to Dale Evans, “the Queen of the West”, in the 1940s, and for a brief time they were something of a media couple – until Evans divorced Butts to marry her regular co-star, the singing cowboy Roy Rogers!
Highlight Scores: Dakota, Flame of Barbary Coast, My Pal Trigger, Too Late for Tears, Dakota Incident.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "Flame of Barbary Coast" (1945).
David Byrne
Born: 14 May 1952, Dumbarton, Scotland.
Background: Groundbreaking alternative rock composer, born in Scotland but raised in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. Played guitar as a child, and attended the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, but dropped out to form the band The Artistics, which later changed its name to Talking Heads. Byrne and Talking Heads released their first self-titled album in 1977, and went on to produce several massively successful follow-ups, including the albums "Speaking in Tongues", "Remain in Light" and "Little Creatures", the hit singles “Burning Down the House” and “Road to Nowhere”, and the movie “Stop Making Sense” (1984), directed by Jonathan Demme and which followed the exploits Byrne and the Heads as they prepare for a series of concerts at the Pantages theatre in Hollywood, California. Having always had an interest in the arts, Byrne wrote the score for 'The Catherine Wheel,' a dance piece choreographed by Twyla Tharp, in 1981, which subsequently led to a series of irregular but successful forays into the world of film music. His previous collaboration with Demme led to him being asked to score his 1986 film “Something Wild”; two years later Byrne won an Academy Award for his work on the 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci film "The Last Emperor”, with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su. Since then, Byrne has continued to release albums, both on his own and with other members of Talking Heads; he scored his most recent film, “Young Adam”, in 2003, and released a soundtrack album with the subtitle “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”. Ever the innovator, Byrne has also undertaken a number of successful collaborations with equally innovative artists such as Brian Eno and Devo.
Highlight Scores: Stop Making Sense, True Stories, Something Wild, The Last Emperor, Married to the Mob, Young Adam.
Awards: Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for "The Last Emperor" (1987).
Links: Talking Heads


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