John Cacavas
Born: 13 August 1930, Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Background: Prolific film and TV composer of the 1970s and 80s, whose work in the medium has been excellent but largely unheralded. Studied music at Northwestern University, and privately with Robert Delaney. After finishing his term with the US Army (where he was an arranger for the Army Band in Washington DC), he began his career as an an assistant to Morton Gould, before making his solo debut as a composer in 1968. Wrote episodic underscore for many popular TV series, including "Hawaii 5-0", "Kojak", "Buck Rogers", "The Equaliser" and "Columbo", as well as dozens of TV movies and mini-series in a career which has spanned almost 30 years. Is probably best known for his work on the disaster flick sequels "Airport 1975" and "Airport 77".
Highlight Scores: Horror Express, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Airport 1975, Airport 77, Hangar 18, Mortuary, The Executioner's Song, Perfect Murder Perfect Town.
Awards: Emmy nominations for “Kojak” (1976) and “Eischeid” (1979).
Patric Caird
Born: Canada.
Background: Canadian composer, saxophonist and music editor, who has worked prolifically in his native country, but has yet to make an impression internationally. First appeared on the scene in the early 1990s, debuting on the acclaimed animated short film “Deadly Deposits”, for which he wrote music, designed the sound and played saxophone. Went on to score episodes of the new “Outer Limits” TV series and the cult animation “Ed Edd 'n' Eddy”, and worked as a music editor for composers such as Brahm Wenger and Anthony Marinelli, before winning a Genie Award (Canadian Oscar) for his work on drama “Here’s To Life!” in 2000. Has since enjoyed a steady career writing for mainly Canadian productions, his most high-profile assignment being the recent TV mini-series based on Stephen King’s “The Dead Zone”.
Highlight Scores: Hard Core Logo, These Arms of Mine, Ed Edd 'n' Eddy, Here's To Life!, Dead Heat, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam.
John Cale
Born: 9 March 1940, Garnant, Wales.
Background: Legendary member of the groundbreaking group Velvet Underground, for whom he played bass and electric viola. Born in Wales, Cale studied classical music at the Goldsmith School in London in the 1960s, and later with Aaron Copland, John Cage and LaMonte Young at Tanglewood in Boston, before meeting and forming a long-lasting professional relationship with Lou Reed in 1964. Cale, Reed and the other members of Velvet Underground were at the centre of the New York art-house scene in the late 1960s that included such iconic figures as Andy Warhol, and during that time was instrumental in developing the majority of their seminal works, including “The Velvet Underground & Nico” and “White Light/White Heat”. At the same time, Cale was developing a parallel career as a producer and classical composer, and when he left Velvet Underground at the beginning of the 1970s, Cale subsequently worked with Patti Smith, the Stooges, Jonathan Richman, Jennifer Warnes and Siouxie and the Banshees, and released several acclaimed solo works including "Vintage Violence", "Academy in Peril", "Paris 1919", "Caribbean Sunset" and the Andy Warhol tribute "Songs for Drella". His enduring relationship with Warhol led him to make his film music debut in 1972 on the film “Heat”; since then, Cale has become something of a film music specialist in the cutting edge, American independent and art-house arenas. He scored the ‘women in prison’ classic “Caged Heat” in 1974, and after a lean 80s decade began composing film music in earnest in the 1990s, with comparatively successful films such as “I Shot Andy Warhol” (1996) and “Basquiat” (1996). Flirted with the mainstream by composing the music for $15 million grossing thriller “American Psycho” in 2000, but remains on the periphery of the genre – at the cutting edge, but intentionally on the outside looking in – where he has been his entire career.
Highlight Scores: Andy Warhol's Heat, Caged Heat, Don't Forget You're Going To Die, I Shot Andy Warhol, Basquiat, House of America, American Psycho, Saint Cyr, Otherworld.
Links: Official Site
Sean Callery
Born: 1968, Bristol, Rhode Island.
Background: Up-and-coming TV composer whose work on several critically acclaimed and award-winning series has thrust him into the limelight. Studied composition and trombone performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, and moved to Los Angeles at the end of the 1980s to work for New England Digital, training people to use the Synclavier Digital Audio workstation. After a brief spell writing music for the Siegfried & Roy stage show in Las Vegas, Callery began to appear on the film music radar in the early 1990s, initially as a sound editor for the Star Trek franchise, but later as a composer on the popular Canadian TV series “La Femme Nikita”. Callery shot to fame four years later when, as the primary composer for the massively successful real-time thriller series “24”, he was swept along on the tide of its success and received three consecutive Emmy nominations in 2002, 2003and 2004, winning the award at his second attempt. Recently, Callery has written original music for the popular EA video game “Everything or Nothing”, based on the James Bond franchise, and looks set to become one of the bright new talents in film music over the next few years.
Highlight Scores: La Femme Nikita (TV), Blowback, 24 (TV).
Awards: Emmy Award for “24” in 2003.
Links: Official Site [WARNING! FLASH HEAVY!].
John Cameron
Born: 20 March 1944, Woodford, England.
Background: Educated at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, where he was the Musical Director of the Footlights theatre troupe. Began his career as a songwriter and arranger for the popular vocalist Donovan, and subsequently worked with artists such as Cilla Black and Cozy Powell, before initiating his film music career in 1969, aged 25, writing the score for Ken Loach's "Kes". Was hugely popular and in-demand throughout the 1970s, writing a number of scores for some of the decade's most popular British films internationally, collaborating with directors such as Jack Gold, Peter Medak (“The Ruling Class”), Brian Hutton (“Night Watch”) and Melvin Frank (“A Touch of Class”). After composing music for the 1979 hit “The Bermuda Triangle”, Cameron’s film music output began to slow considerably, and since then he has dedicated himself mainly to work as an active arranger in both the pop and classical worlds: during the 1980s and 90s Cameron worked with artists such as David Essex, Hot Chocolate, Ella Fitzgerald and Jose Carreras, and wrote the original orchestrations for the worldwide hit stage musical "Les Miserables"
Highlight Scores: Kes, Black Beauty, The Ruling Class, Night Watch, A Touch of Class, Who?, Whiffs, The Stud, The Bermuda Triangle, Lost and Found, The Mirror Crack'd, Jack the Ripper, Driftwood, To End All Wars.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "A Touch of Class" (1973).
Links: Official Site
Michel Camilo
Born: 4 April 1954, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Background: A talented pianist and composer, Camilo moved from his native Dominican Republic to New York in 1979, where he attended the famed Juilliard School. He has released several acclaimed albums of original jazz music (notably "Why Not", "On Fire", "Rendezvous" and "Spain"), has collaborated with artists as varied as Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito Rivera and Chucho Valdes, and has written many acclaimed classical pieces which have been performed by top orchestras throughout the world. Camilo’s film music output has been small but well-received, although to date it has been limited to just one English-language movie: the 1996 comedy “Two Much” directed by Fernando Trueba. Camilo has been the director of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic for almost 20 years.
Highlight Scores: Amo Mi Cama Rica, The Worst Years of Our Lives, Two Much.
Links: Michel Camilo site
David Carbonara
Born:
Background: Promising young composer who, for the majority of his career, has been better known as a music editor. Carbonara began his career as such in the early 1990s, and throughout the decade has worked for top composers such as Howard Shore, Thomas Newman and Rachel Portman on films such as “American Buffalo”, “Cop Land”, “The Cider House Rules” and, recently, “Chocolat” and “The Truth About Charlie”. Made his compositional debut in 1994, on director David O. Russell low-budget comedy “Spanking the Monkey”, and scored a modest international hit in 2002 with the Heather Graham Bollywood-flavoured comedy “The Guru”. He is one of a very small number of composers to successfully juggle this dual-career, and judging by his recent work with James Newton Howard and Christopher Young, it looks as though it will continue.
Highlight Scores: Spanking the Monkey, Fast Food Fast Women, The Guru.
Gerard Carbonara
Born: 8 December 1886, New York, New York. Died: 11 January 1959.
Background: Composer, conductor and violinist, who received a scholarship to the National Conservatory in New York, before going on to study with Martucci Dworczak at the Conservatory in Naples, Italy. Began his career as an opera coach in Milan in 1910, and became well regarded as a concert violinist and opera conductor throughout Europe, before returning to the USA in the mid-1920s to take up a post in the music department of Paramount Pictures. Over the next 30 years, Carbonara’s music would be heard in almost 200 films, although the vast majority of this was uncredited “stock music” he wrote for Paramount’s vast archives. Among his most famous credits were the 1943 western “The Kansan”, for which he received his one and only Oscar nomination, and the 1946 civil war western “Abilene Town” starring Randolph Scott. In addition to his film music, Carbonara also wrote an original opera entitled “Armand”, as well as several piano and violin works, concertos and performance pieces. He wrote his final credited score for “The Big Wheel” in 1949, and retired to Sherman Oaks, California, where he died in 1959 aged 72.
Highlight Scores: American Empire, The Kansan, Appointment in Berlin, Easy Life, Abilene Town, The Big Wheel.
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "The Kansan" (1943).
Sam Cardon
Born: 15 October 1956, Durango, Colorado.
Background: American composer and jazz musician who specialises in writing scores for large-format "IMAX" films. Studied at Brigham Young University in Utah, and began his career as an arranger working out of the former Osmonds studio in Salt Lake City. First appeared on the film music scene in the early 1990s, writing music for television and small-scale features, and came to prominence in 1996 when he scored his first IMAX film, “Treasure of the Gods”. Cardon has since written music for nine large-format films, including the popular "Whales", "Mysteries of Egypt", “Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure” and “Lewis & Clark”. In addition, Cardon was involved in the musical direction for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, and has also released several acclaimed solo jazz albums.
Highlight Scores: Friendship's Field, Whales, Mysteries of Egypt, Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure, Brigham City, Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West, Little Secrets, The Work and the Glory.
Links: Official Site
Wendy Carlos
Born: 14 November 1939, Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Background: One of the great innovators in synthesised and electronic music, Wendy Carlos first came to prominence in the mid-1970s when she released ground-breaking album "Switched On Bach", the first all-synthesizer recording of classical music. Her short but distinguished film music career was built on the back of this, when director Stanley Kubrick asked her to contribute original music and new versions of classical standards for his 1971 classic “A Clockwork Orange”. Carlos has only written music for two other films in her career – Kubrick’s ”The Shining” in 1980, and the Disney sci-fi hit “Tron” in 1982 – but Carlos’s reputation as one of music true innovators is under no threat. Despite her film music inactivity, Carlos remains musically active, having released a series of classical recordings, all performed on synthesisers, notably "Well Tempered Synthesiser", "Switched-On Brandenburgs" and "Sonic Seasonings". Interestingly, Wendy Carlos was born male, with the name Walter Carlos - she underwent a sex-change operation in 1972, details of which she revealed during a surprise Playboy interview in 1979
Highlight Scores: A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Tron.
Links: Official Site
Don Caron
Born: 15 January 1955, Spokane, Washington.
Background: Talented composer from Washington state who, during the last 25 years or so, has written dozens of ballet scores, dance scores, and video and commercial music. As well as composition, Caron has long been a high-profile member of the Northwest music scene, having been involved in music education at every level, and who over the years has worked with several highly-regarded orchestras, theatre companies and ballet troupes. His one and only film score to date is "The Basket", for which he wrote an original score, an original opera, and co-wrote the screenplay. His most recent project is “Victor”, an original opera based on Mary Shelley’s horror tale Frankenstein.
Highlight Scores: The Basket, Victor (opera).
Links: Official Site
Fiorenzo Carpi
Born: 19 October 1918, Milan, Italy. Died: 21 May 1987.
Background: Highly respected Italian composer, who worked extensively on European art-house films in the 1960s and 70s with directors such as Vittorio Gassman, Patrice Chéreau, Louis Malle and Tinto Brass. Studied with at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, and became a permanent member of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano upon its foundation in 1947, subsequently writing music for over a hundred stage productions produced by the legendary by Giorgio Strehler. Made his film music debut in 1960 on the classic farce “Zazie Dans Le Metro”, and over the next 20 years would contribute music to number of well-loved and classic films across Europe, as well as many Italian pop and jazz standards, chamber pieces and classical symphonic works. Carpi won a David Award (Italian Oscar) in 1981 for his work on one his final films, Luigi Comencini’s drama “Voltati Eugenio”, but worked on just a dozen films thereafter. Carpi died in 1997, aged 78.
Highlight Scores: Zazie Dans Le Metro, Vie Privée, Incompreso, Le Avventure di Pinocchio, Salon Kitty, Voltati Eugenio, L'Homme Blesse.
Paul Carr
Born: 1961, London, England.
Background: Up-and-coming English composer who has been writing music since the age of 15. Began his career in the world of opera, initially as a stage manager at the English National Opera, and gradually becoming more involved in the artistic side of things. He was the director of the Glyndebourne Festival until 1998, after which he resigned to concentrate on composing full-time. Despite enjoying just one small success to date (the 1999 comedy “Janice Beard 45 WPM” starring Patsy Kensit and Rhys Ifans) Carr has written a number of classical works, including a violin concerto for the LSO, a clarinet quintet for the London Philharmonic, and a trumpet concerto. He has also recently released his first album of original music, "Crowded Streets".
Highlight Scores: Janice Beard 45 WPM, Being Considered, Lady Audley's Secret.
Tristram Cary
Born: 14 May 1925, Oxford, England.
Background: Popular British film and TV composer, who regularly worked on films produced by the famous Hammer studio. Studied at Trinity College of Music, London, and at Oxford University, and developed an interest for electronic music while serving in the Royal Navy. Made his debut in 1955, and worked on upwards of 20 films, until his retirement in 1977. Also scored several episodes of the cult British science fiction series "Doctor Who" in the 1960s. In addition, Cary has written a number of acclaimed classical pieces, notably "Continuum" (1969), "Peccata Mundi" (1972), "The Songs Inside" (1977), "Strands" (1980), "I Am Here" (1980), "Seeds" (1982), and "The Dancing Girls (1991), as well as a number of scores for theatre. Since his retirement, Cary has been equally active as a teacher and author, writing a number of books on electronic music, and founding the electronic music studio at the Royal College of Music. Now an Australian citizen, he is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow and former Dean of Music at the University of Adelaide
Highlight Scores: The Ladykillers, The Prince and the Pauper, Sammy Going South, Quatermass and the Pit, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb.
Links: Official Site
Carles Cases
Born: 1958, Barcelona, Spain.
Background: Popular and successful Spanish composer, one of the “new wave” of artists to emerge from the country in the 1990s. Studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música in Barcelona, the Academia de Música Contemporánea in Hastad, Norway, and with Alfredo Gómez at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. Began his career as a member of a big band which toured through Spain in the late 1970s, before forming his own “jazz fusion” group shortly thereafter. Having performed as part of a classical string quartet during the same period, Cases switched to concentrate on film and TV productions in the late 1980s, with great success. His work since then has included such international hits as “Los Sin Nombre”, “Dagon” “Darkness”, and several films for director Ventura Pons. He was nominated for a Goya Award (Spanish Oscar) in 1996 for his work on Pons’s “El Perqué de Tot Plegat”, and looks to have a successful future ahead of him. In addition to his film work, Cases continues to have an interest in jazz and big band music, having recently enjoyed collaborations with Spanish artists such as Lluis Llach, Maria del Mar Bonet and Georges Moustaki.
Highlight Scores: Havanera 1820, El Perqué de Tot Plegat, Caricies, Los Sin Nombres, El Portero, Dagon, Darkness, Food of Love.
Links: Official Site
Warren Casey
Born: 1935, Yonkers, New York. Died: 8 November 1988.
Background: Stage composer who will forever be remembered as creator of one of the best-known screen musicals, "Grease". Studied Fine Arts at the Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts in Syracuse, New York, before moving to Chicago in the early 1960s to pursue work as an actor (one of his few pre-Grease claims to fame was starring in the original production of David Mamet's “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”). Casey met Jim Jacobs while acting with the Chicago Stage Guild, and the two began writing a show together in between jobs. Their resulting work –“Grease” - premiered in 1971 at the Kingston Mines Theatre, an obscure venue in the Old Town section of Chicago. Receiving rave reviews, the production hit the Broadway stage in 1972 and the rest is history. The musical was a Tony Award-winning smash, and was famously turned into a classic screen musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John by director Randal Kleiser six years later. Throughout his life, Casey was a vociferous and high profile campaigner for homosexual rights; sadly, he died of an AIDS-related illness in 1988 at the age of just 53, having only written one single work. At the time of his death Casey was writing what would have been his second work, a musical with Brazilian performer Valucha de Castro.
Highlight Scores: Grease.
Teddy Castellucci
Born:
Background: Talented composer, arranger and saxophonist, famous in film music circles as the man who writes the music for the movies of Adam Sandler. Began his career as a studio musician who, through the 1980s, collaborated with artists such as Michael Jackson, Jackson Browne, Smokey Robinson, Olivia Newton John, Michael Bolton, Natalie Cole, Linda Ronstadt, Wynton Marsalis, and Dizzy Gillespie, before being hired by director Frank Coraci to appear as one of Adam Sandler's backing musicians in "The Wedding Singer" (1998). Castellucci has since gone on to be 'the Adam Sandler composer', having written music for eight of the actor/producer's subsequent films, almost all of which have been impressive box-office successes. A personal comment: sadly, Castellucci suffers from the most appalling typecasting in Hollywood, having spent his entire career scoring either Adam Sandler movies or juvenile comedies. Despite having a lovely orchestral touch, Castellucci needs to break out of his box NOW before his career goes into freefall.
Highlight Scores: The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Little Nicky, The Animal, Mr. Deeds, 8 Crazy Nights, Anger Management, My Boss's Daughter, 50 First Dates, White Chicks, The Longest Yard, Rebound.
Khalil Chahine
Born:
Background: Popular and successful composer and guitarist, born in France of Egyptian/American heritage. Began his career as a professional guitarist in the jazz clubs of Paris, before going on to enjoy a successful stint as an accompanist to artists such as Michel Legrand, Martial Solal, Diane Dufresne and Jacques Dutronc. With Legrand’s encouragement, Chahine began scoring movies in France in the late 1980s, with a degree of domestic success, on films for directors such as Marie-France Pisier, Tonie Marshall and Gerard Jugnot. His only international film success to date has been the 1999 comedy/drama “Venus Beauty”, but as a solo artist he has had much more acclaim. In addition to his film score work, Chahine has released several albums of popular world music, including "Turkoise" (1991), “Hekma” (1994), "Opake" (1995) and "Bakhtus" (1999).
Highlight Scores: Le Bal du Gouverneur, Venus Beauty, Meilleur Espoir Féminin, Monsieur Batignole.
Charlie Chaplin
Born: 16 April 1889, London, England. Died: 25 December 1977.
Background: One of the most revered and well-loved stars of cinema’s fledgling years, who wrote music for many of the classic silent comedies he acted in and directed. The son of vaudeville music hall entertainers, Chaplin debuted on stage in 1894 aged just five years old, before poverty and ill heath forced him into a London orphanage. Chaplin was subsequently “discovered” by pantomime troupe producer Fred Karno in 1910, who took the young Chaplin on a tour of America. Seduced by the glamorous American lifestyle, Chaplin signed a contract with Keystone in 1913, and made his first Hollywood film, “Making a Living”, shortly thereafter. His reputation was cemented soon thereafter when his trademark “tramp” image – baggy pants, bowler hat, toothbrush moustache – was first seen in the 1914 film “Kid Auto Races At Venice”. After making over 50 classic silent comedy films during the latter half of the 1910s, during which time he became one of the most famous actors in Hollywood, Chaplin debuted his first full-length feature, “The Kid”, in 1921. Now rightly considered a cinematic genius, Chaplin would go on to direct and star in some of the best loved comedies ever made, including silents such as “The Gold Rush” (1925), “The Circus” (1928), “City Lights” (1931) and “Modern Times” (1936), and talkies such as “The Great Dictator” (1940) and “Monsieur Verdoux” (1947). For all these films, in collaboration with his friend and orchestrator David Raksin, Chaplin also wrote original score. Following the completion of “Limelight” in 1952 (which also starred his great contemporary Buster Keaton), Chaplin was accused of being a communist and was indicted for tax evasion; Limelight was canned, Chaplin left America for Switzerland, and he never worked in Hollywood again. Twenty years later, after Limelight had been given a belated release, Chaplin received an Oscar for the score he wrote, and was awarded an honorary Oscar the following year for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century”. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, and died at his home in Switzerland on Christmas Day 1977, aged 88.
Highlight Scores: The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, dozens of classic silent short films from 1914-1920.
Awards: Academy Award for "Limelight" (1972).
Links: Official Site
Saul Chaplin
Born: 19 February 1912, New York, New York. Died: 15 November 1997.
Background: Real name Saul Kaplan. American composer, songwriter, pianist, conductor, arranger, author and producer, who was a Hollywood mainstay in the studio system in the 1940s and 50s. Studied at the NYU School of Commerce, and was originally set on a career in finance, before his love of music took hold. Began his career as a jobbing orchestra pianist in and around New York, during which time met aspiring songwriter Sammy Cahn, who would go on to be one of his great friends and collaborators. When Cahn began getting Hollywood commissions at the end of the 1930s, he persuaded his old friend to join him on the west coast. Chaplin came to Hollywood in 1941 to join the staff of Columbia Pictures, and went on to enjoy a 20 year career as a songwriter, composer and music director on over 50 of their well-loved films. Chaplin was a five-time Oscar nominee, winning on three occasions for his work on the screen musicals “An American in Paris” (1951), “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954) and “West Side Story” (1961). With Cahn and his other chief musical collaborator Johnny Mercer, Chaplin was responsible for many popular and successful songs, including ‘I Could Make You Care’, ‘Anniversary Song’, ‘You Wonderful You’, and the English version of ‘Bei mir Bist du Schön’. Chaplin effectively retired from music at the beginning of the 1960s, and was enjoying a long and happy retirement when he died from complications after suffering a fall at his Los Angeles home in 1997, aged 85. Trivia note: Chaplin’s daughter, Judy is married to the acclaimed theatre director Harold Prince.
Highlight Scores: Cover Girl, The Jolson Story, On the Town, Summer Stock, An American in Paris, Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, High Society, Merry Andrew, West Side Story.
Awards: Academy Awards for "An American in Paris" (1951), "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954) and "West Side Story" (1961).
Benoît Charest
Born: 1964, Montreal, Canada.
Background: Canadian composer who came to fame in 2003 following his work on the groundbreaking animated film “Belleville Rendez-Vous”. A jazz guitarist by trade, Charest studied composition and harmony at college in Montreal, and worked the club circuit during his twenties, playing guitar and receiving acclaim for his expressive jazz-infused playing. He began his writing music for TV commercials and small independent Canadian films in the 1990s. He made his “proper” debut in 1999, collaborating with his long-time friend Maxime Morin on the Canadian comedy “Matroni et Moi”, before being hired to work on Belleville by director Sylvain Chomet in 2003. A Cèsar Award an an Oscar nomination later, and Charest is one of Canada’s hot young composers, with a solo album in the works, and a potentially exciting film music career ahead.
Highlight Scores: Matroni et Moi, La Vie Apres L'Amour, Belleville Rendez-Vous.
Awards: Oscar nomination and Cèsar Award for “Belleville Rendez-Vous” in 2003.
Links: Official Site
Evan H. Chen
Born: 1972, Beijing, China.
Background: Highly regarded but controversial Chinese composer whose work in the world of TV science fiction won him few fans. Studied piano at Shanghai Teacher’s College, before receiving a scholarship to study in America with composer William Kraft. He decided to stay in the States, and began his career working for "What The Hale" music house in Chicago, writing library music for use in film, television and advertising, during which time he was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera company commissioned to compose an original work, "Bokchoy Variations", and won an award for his stage score “Coriolanus”, written for the Next Theatre Company in Evanston, Illinois. After moving to Los Angeles in 1997, Chen first came to prominence when writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski approached him to write music on episodes of his hit sci-fi show “Babylon 5”, and subsequently asked him to act at the lead composer for his planned spin-off series "Crusade". Sadly, the show flopped and was cancelled after just one season. Chen’s career nose-dived, and he has not been heard of professionally since then. Does anyone know what happened to him?
Highlight Scores: Babylon 5: A Call to Arms, Crusade.
Paul Chihara
Born: 9 July 1938, Seattle, Washington.
Background: American composer of Japanese heritage, Chihara received a PhD from Cornell University, and undertook further study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Ernst Pepping in Berlin, and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood in Boston. During the 1970s, Chihara was a exciting and popular member of American classical music fraternity: he was composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the San Francisco Ballet, during which time he wrote several acclaimed ballet scores including “Shin-ju” and “The Tempest”. Chihara made his film music debut writing music for “Death Race 2000” in 1975, and subsequently enjoyed a successful career writing mainly television music, for directors such as Sidney Lumet, Louis Malle, Michael Ritchie, and Arthur Penn: among his more significant titles are films such as “Prince of the City” (1981), “The Morning After” (1986) and “Crossing Delancey” (1988). After a decade away from film music, during which time he worked teaching students and serving on the faculty board of UCLA and conducting orchestras world-wide, he is finally making a comeback: he recently scored two HBO movies, “Thought Crimes” and “Strip Search”, for director Sidney Lumet, and is scheduled to score “Romance and Cigarettes” for director John Turturro in 2005.
Highlight Scores: Death Race 2000, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, Prince of the City, The Morning After, Crossing Delancey, Penn and Teller Get Killed, Kiki’s Delivery Servive (US re-scoring), Thought Crimes, Strip Search, Romance and Cigarettes.
Edmund Choi
Born: 27 July 1970, New York, New York.
Background: Korean/American composer whose career seems to have stalled, despite showing a great deal of early promise. Studied at NYU, and took part in 1992 NYU First Run Film Festival, where his score for the short film "Fire in a Barren Field" won first prize. Upon graduation, Choi took up a post as an assistant Carter Burwell, and worked with him on number of his scores during the 1990s, including “Barton Fink” and “Fargo”. Choi made his solo composing debut in 1992, writing the music for M. Night Shyamalan’s first film "Praying with Anger", and his subsequent follow-up “Wide Awake”. After being nominated for an Australian Oscar for his work on 2001 comedy "The Dish", the future for Choi seemed bright, but for some reason he has found work difficult to come by: since then, his only credits have been for the 2003 romantic comedy “Nola”, and conducting “The Guru” for composer David Carbonara. Let’s hope this changes soon.
Highlight Scores: Praying With Anger, Wide Awake, The Castle, Down To You, The Dish.
Links: Official Site
Frank Churchill
Born: 20 October 1901, Rumford, Maine. Died: 14 May 1942.
Background: Acclaimed composer from the early days of Disney, whose songs and scores graced some of the classic animated films of the 30s and 40s. Studied music at the University of California, and began his career as a pianist in silent movie houses, before joining the fledgling Disney studio as one of their resident composers in 1932. Over the next decade, Churchill and his contemporaries would write music for dozens of animated short films, as well as classic features such as 1937’s “Snow White and Seven Dwarfs” (Churchill was the man responsible for ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’, ‘I'm Wishing’ and ‘Heigh-Ho’), 1941s “Dumbo” and 1942s “Bambi”. Shockingly, and despite seemingly having a bright musical future ahead of him, he committed suicide in May 1942 at his home in Castaic, California, when aged just 41.
Highlight Scores: Three Little Pigs, Babes in Toyland, Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, Bambi, The Reluctant Dragon.
Awards: Academy Award for Dumbo (1941), nominations for "Snow White and Seven Dwarfs" (1937) and "Bambi" (1942).
Stelvio Cipriani
Born: 20 August 1937, Rome, Italy.
Background: Popular Italian composer, a contemporary of Morricone, who has enjoyed a successful career in Europe without attaining the same level of international acclaim. Studied piano and harmony at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and began his career as a light music pianist, working with artists such as Rita Pavone, Tony Renis and Dave Brubeck. Has written over 200 scores in a career which began in 1966, the vast majority of them for Italian cinema (his most famous being the 1970 film "Anonimo Veneziano", "The Anonymous Venetian"). Cipriani has worked with notable directors such as Mario Bava, Luigi Cozzi, Ruggero Deodato and Lucio Fulci, and is still composing today: his most recent work was for the 2003 drama "L'Acqua il Fuoco" starring Sabrina Ferilli.
Highlight Scores: Anonimo Veneziano, Reazione a Catena, Gli Orrori Del Castello Di Norimberga, Tentacoli, Incubo Sulla Città Contaminata, Piranha II.
Eric Clapton
Born: 30 March 1945, Ripley, England.
Background: Widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, and who has enjoyed a small but successful career in film music in tandem with his groundbreaking pop and rock career. After trying and failing at a number of careers, and having been thrown out of art school, the guitarist named "Slowhand" first tasted success when he joined the popular British pop/blues band The Yardbirds in the early 1960s. However, it was only Clapton when formed his own band - Cream - that his reputation as one of Britain’s most brilliant guitarists was cemented. With Cream, Clapton released a number of successful albums including "Fresh Cream" and "Wheels of Fire", and subsequently released a number of solo works, including the legendary "Layla", as well as "Another Ticket", "Behind the Sun" and "Journeyman". Clapton began working in film in 1975, collaborating with Pete Townshend of The Who on the rock opera "Tommy", but his greatest success came in collaboration with Michael Kamen on "Edge of Darkness" (1985), "Homeboy" (1988) and the four "Lethal Weapon" films (1987-98). Clapton won a Grammy and was nominated for a Golden Globe for "Tears in Heaven", the song he wrote for the film 1991 “Rush”. Throughout his life, Clapton has been touched by tragedy: he has struggled with drug addiction for many years, and in 1990 his young son Connor was tragically killed when he fell from a 49th floor balcony in New York.
Highlight Scores: Tommy, Edge of Darkness, Lethal Weapon and its sequels, Homeboy, Rush, Nil By Mouth, The Story of Us.
Awards: BAFTA Award for "Edge of Darkness" (1986). Golden Globe nomination for the song from "Rush" (1991).
Links: Unofficial Site by Gareth Davies.
Nigel Clarke
Born:
Background: Up-and-coming British composer who, along with his colleague composer and pianist Michael Csányi-Wills, has written music for a number of successful films during the past five years. Studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Queen's Commendation for Excellence, and subsequently spent a year in Hong Kong, writing music for their Academy for Performing Arts. Upon his return to the UK, Clarke wrote a number original classical pieces, including ‘Lindisfarne Stone’, ‘Gwennan Gorne’, ‘Battles and Chants’, and original commissioned pieces for ensembles including the Black Dyke Mills Band and the United States Marine Corp Band. Clarke and Csányi-Wills made their film music debut in 1998, writing music for the biopic about Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of modern Pakistan, and have since gone on to write excellent music for a number of small-scale British and European productions. In addition to his composing career, Clarke is also currently the Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the London College of Music and Media.
Highlight Scores: Jinnah, The Little Vampire, The Little Polar Bear, Rocket Post.
Stanley Clarke
Born: 30 June 1951, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Background: Multi-award winning composer, conductor, producer and bass player. Studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and first came to fame in the 1970s as an outstanding acoustic bass player with legendary jazz artists such as Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz and Chick Corea. Corea's band, Return To Forever, was enormously successful in the late 1970s, and resulted in Clarke going on to be known as one of the best and most well-respected bassists in the world. Clarke's fame led him to collaborate professionally with artists such as Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, Natalie Cole, Brenda Russell, Sonny Rollins, Santana, Shalimar and Michael Jackson. Clarke turned his hand to the world of film in the late 1980s, and quickly rose to become one of the foremost ‘black composers’ in film, with over 50 credits to his name, including box office hits such as “Passenger 57” (1992), “What's Love Got To Do With It” (1993) and “Romeo Must Die” (2000).
Highlight Scores: Boyz 'N The Hood, Passenger 57, What's Love Got To Do With It, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Panther, Down In The Delta, The Best Man, Romeo Must Die, Undercover Brother, Undisputed, The Transporter, Roll Bounce.
Links: Official Site
Alf Clausen
Born: 28 March 1941, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Background: Veteran American composer whose name will be forever synonymous with the hit animated show "The Simpsons". Studied at the University of Wisconsin, and Boston's Berklee College of Music, and began his career as an arranger for artists such as Buddy Rich, Ray Charles and Stan Kenton. Moved to Hollywood in the 1970s, initially as the bandleader on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, while orchestrating for composers such as Lee Holdridge, Craig Safan and Ira Newborn. Began composing original music for small features and TV shows such as "Moonlighting" and "ALF" in the early 1980s, before landing the gig as the lead composer for “The Simpsons” in 1990 at the beginning of Season 2. Since then, Clausen has devoted himself almost solely to Springfield's first family, having written for the show for over fifteen years, and having only occasionally made rare forays to score other features or TV movies. For his efforts, Clausen has been rewarded with an amazing seventeen Emmy nominations for The Simpsons alone, winning the wards on two occasions in 1997 and 1998.
Highlight Scores: Murder in Three Acts, The Simpsons, Half Baked.
Awards: Two Emmys for "The Simpsons" in 1996 and 1997, plus an additional nineteen nominations for his work on "The Simpsons" and "Moonlighting".
Links: Official Alf Clausen Site
Shawn Clement
Born: 4 October 1968, Milford, Massachusetts.
Background: Acxcomplished American TV composer who has spent his career specialising in reality shows. Studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, before moving to Los Angeles in 1994. Initially, Clement enjoyed a career as a session musician in the clubs on Sunset Strip, but quickly developed a career in composing music for television. Since then, Clement has fostered a fruitful career on Hollywood's “lower rungs”, carving out a niche for himself writing music for TV series, movies of the week and (interestingly) reality TV shows such as "World's Wildest Police Videos", "When Good Pets Go Bad" and the like. Clement is an avid collector of vintage guitars and musical instruments.
Highlight Scores: No Way Back, Last Chance, A Fate Totally Worse Than Death, We Married Margo, A Light Night's Odyssey.
Links: Official Site
Charlie Clouser
Born: 28 June 1963, Hanover, New Hampshire.
Background: Musician, keyboardist, producer and engineer, best known for his groundbreaking work with Nine Inch Nails. Always interested in music as a child, Clouser studied at Hampshire College, and moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to work as a ProTools engineer in the music industry. Clouser He became involved in the work of Nine Inch Nails and its lead man, Trent Reznor, through a mutual friend, and subsequently went on to work on some of their most acclaimed albums, including “Pretty Hate Machine”, “The Downward Spiral” and “The Fragile”. As well as Nine Inch Nails, Clouser has collaborated with artists as varied as David Bowie, Belinda Carlisle, Page Hamilton, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, and is recognised as one of the most talented engineers and remixers working in Los Angeles today. He made his film music debut in 1995, assisting Reznor on Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers”, and made his solo composing debut in the 2004 serial killer thriller “Saw”.
Highlight Scores: Saw, Saw II.
Links: The Remix Files.
Elia Cmiral
Born: 1957, Prague, Czech Republic.
Background: Brought up in a culturally alive family (his mother was an actress, his father a director), young Ilja David Cmíral began composing at an early age, completing his first full-length theatrical score for a stage performance of Cyrano de Bergerac in Prague aged 18. He moved to live in Sweden in 1980, and built up a solid reputation scoring Scandinavian film and TV projects, before enrolling in the USC film scoring programme in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. Rose to prominence in Hollywood through his work on the TV action series "Nash Bridges", and has subsequently on several high-profile films, including “Ronin” (1998), “Stigmata” (1999) and “Wrong Turn” (2003) - although he was unfortunate to be attached to one of the biggest critical and commercial flops of all time, John Travolta's would-be scientology sci-fi epic "Battlefield Earth" (2000). His surname is pronounced "smeer-al".
Highlight Scores: Apartment Zero, Nash Bridges (TV), Ronin, Stigmata, Battlefield Earth, Bones, They, Wrong Turn, Species III, Pulse.
Links: The Elia Cmiral Fan Page
Serge Colbert
Born:
Background: French Canadian composer who has spent the majority of his career scoring low-budget B-movie action movies. After a low-key career in the Canadian television and advertising market, he made his international debut in 1997, scoring the first of his several scores for the Delta Force series of films. Since then, Colbert has written for a number of high-profile films, including the 2001 Antonio Banderas drama “The Body” and the 2002 Jean-Claude Van Damme thriller “Derailed”, but his has yet to truly break through into the international arena.
Highlight Scores: Operation Delta Force, Shark Attack, Crocodile, The Body, Ticker, Derailed.
Ray Colcord
Born:
Background: A self-proclaimed "bon vivant", Colcord is a prolific composer of music for American television, having worked on many top-rated shows since making his debut in 1979. His work on television has been extensive, and has included stints composing for successful series such as "227", "My Two Dads", "Singer & Sons", "Dinosaurs", "Boy Meets World", "Promised Land", "The Simpsons", and the US version of the hit reality show "Big Brother". His big-screen credits include the horror sequel “Amityville Dollhouse” (1996), the children’s adventure “The Paper Brigade” (1997), and a great deal of uncredited additional music for major features such as “Casper”, “The General’s Daughter” and “Lara Croft – Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life”. Away from the music scene, Colcord is heavily involved in the world of composer politics, having been President of the Society of Composers and Lyricists and a governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Colcord is also an avid motor racer, having taken part in several single-seater series at semi-professional level.
Highlight Scores: The Devonsville Terror, Singer & Sons (TV), Wish Upon a Star, Amityville Dollhouse, The Paper Brigade.
Links: Official Site.
Awards: Emmy nomination for "Singer & Sons" (1990).
Lisa Coleman
Born: 12 August 1960, Los Angeles, California.
Background: One half of the composing duo Wendy & Lisa (along with Wendy Melvoin, who was a childhood friend; both their fathers were studio musicians). Joined Prince's group, The Revolution, in the early 1980s and collaborated with the diminutive star on all his hit records, from "1999" to "Kiss", and first dabbled in film when contributing additional music to the 1984 film "Purple Rain". After The Revolution disbanded, Wendy & Lisa embarked on a solo pop career, and even had a minor pop hit, "Satisfaction", in the UK in 1989. However, after contributing to the soundtrack of Hans Zimmer's "Toys" in 1992, they were bitten by the film bug, and began concentrating on scoring movies shortly thereafter. The duo first came to prominence with the score to the Michelle Pfeiffer hit "Dangerous Minds" in 1995, and went on to contribute scores to a number of comedies and dramas with an African-American twist, while remaining active in the pop and rock scene. Outside the film world, the two have worked with artists including KD Lang, Sheryl Crow, Tricky, Seal, Neal Finn and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Highlight Scores: Purple Rain, Dangerous Minds, Hav Plenty, Soul Food, Juwanna Mann, Carnivále (TV).
Awards: Grammy for "Purple Rain" (1984).
Links: Official Site

Anthony Collins
Born: 3 September 1893, Hastings, England. Died: 11 December 1963.
Background: British composer from the Golden Age, who enjoyed a successful career writing for popular movies on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1930s and 1940s. Studied at the Royal College of Music in London and began his career as a viola player, eventually going on to be lead viola of the London Symphony and Covent Garden orchestras. Resigned in 1936 to devote his time to conducting and composition, and enjoyed a successful career in the London concert halls. Around this time he also made his film music debut, writing music for the screen biopic of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, “Victoria the Great” (1937). Was lured by the Hollywood bug shortly thereafter, and moved to California, where he would go on to write a dozen or so scores for the RKO studio, picking up three Oscar nominations on the way. After World War II, Collins returned to Britain and devoted himself to the classical world, conducting notable re-recordings of works by Elgar and Sibelius, and touring with the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Liverpool, Halle, and Birmingham orchestras. His own compositions included two symphonies for strings, two violin concertos, and four operas (“Perseus and Andromeda”, “Catherine Parr”, “The Blue Harlequin” and “Kanawa”). Collins retired from public life at the end of the 1950s and returned to Los Angeles, where he died in 1963 aged 70.
Highlight Scores: Victoria the Great, Nurse Edith Cavell, Allegheny Uprising, Irene, Sunny, Macao, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, The Courtneys of Curzon Street, Odette.
Awards: Academy Award nominations for "Nurse Edith Cavell" (1939), "Irene" ((1940) and "Sunny" (1941).
Michel Colombier
Born: 23 May 1939, Lyon, France. Died: 14 November 2004.
Background: French composer and arranger, who enjoyed a particularly fruitful career in film music during the 1980s. Taught music by his father, and began his career playing in and writing for jazz bands after completing his national service in the French army. Studied with avant-garde composer Michel Magne in Paris, and went on to be an arranger for artists such Charles Aznavour, Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert and Petula Clark, and began writing film scores for French films as early as 1964, before coming to fame as an artist in his own right following the release of his solo album "Wings" in the early 1970s. Throughout the decade, Colombier won numerous awards, and became a much-loved household name in his native France, where he scored over 20 films and was hailed as a natural successor the likes of Gershwin and Bernstein. Made in an impact internationally in 1984 when he was hired to work on the Oscar-nominated Phil Collins movie “Against All Odds”, and quickly became a familiar figure in Hollywood, working with directors such as Taylor Hackford, Michael Ritchie, Richard Benjamin and the Zucker Brothers on a number of critically acclaimed and successful films. Although his work on high-profile films slowed in his final years, Colombier continued to busy himself working on French productions and solo projects; in addition to this, Colombier had been involved in the world of modern dance for many years, and had written for such luminaries as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Twyla Tharp and the American Ballet Theatre. He died of cancer on 14 November 2004 at his home in Santa Monica, aged 65.
Highlight Scores: Against All Odds, Purple Rain, Elisa, White Nights, The Money Pit, Ruthless People, The Golden Child, Strictly Business, Who’s Harry Crumb?, New Jack City, Deep Cover, Posse, The Program, Major League II, Barb Wire, How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
Awards: Golden Globe nomination for "White Nights" (1986). César Award for "Elisa" (1985).
Links: Official Site
Alberto Colombo
Born: 27 November 1888, New York, New York. Died: 23 March 1954.
Background: Golden Age composer and music director who spent the majority of his 20-year career working for Republic Pictures. Studied composition and cello performance in New York, played with the Manhattan Opera House orchestra, and worked as an arranger for the jazz king Paul Whiteman before coming to Hollywood at the end of the 1920s. Initially a staff composer with RKO, Colombo made his credited debut as musical director on the 1934 thriller “The Silver Streak” (1934), before moving across town to Republic, receiving his one and only Oscar nomination for his work on “Portia on Trial” (1937) while in their employ. Over the next 20 years, Colombo would go on to write music for over 100 Republic and MGM productions, although a great many of these were uncredited, or were taken from the library or stock music he wrote for the studio archives. He was still an active composer when, late on the night of March 23 1954, Colombo was found dead in his car, the victim of a severe beating and a fatal blow to the head. His murder was never solved.
Highlight Scores: Portia On Trial, The Fighting Devil Dogs, Dick Tracy Returns, A Guy Named Joe, The Black Hand, Go For Broke!
Awards: Academy Award nomination for "Portia On Trial" (1937).
Eric Colvin
Born: 1969, California.
Background: Up-and-coming American composer. Studied film music at USC, where he was awarded the BMI Film Music Composition Scholarship, and served his apprenticeship as a scoring assistant, keyboardist, synth programmer and orchestrator for Basil Poledouris. Colvin worked with the composer on a number of high-profile projects from the mid-1990s onwards, and began scoring his own films in 1996, receiving critical acclaim for several projects he undertook with director Simon Wincer (“Crossfire Trail”, “Monte Walsh”). Recently, Colvin scored the popular IMAX movie “NASCAR 3-D”, and on the back of that film’s box-office success, looks set to have a bright future ahead of him.
Highlight Scores: The Setting Son, Life-Size, Model Behaviour, Crossfire Trail, Monte Walsh, NASCAR 3-D.
Links: Official Site
Joseph Conlan
Born:
Background: Prolific composer of scores for American television who, despite having written consistently over the last 20 years, has never been given his shot at the 'big time'. Made his film music debut in 1980, writing music for the first six seasons of the detective drama series “Simon & Simon”, and made his big-screen debut shortly thereafter, scoring the ‘women in prison’ exploitation pics “The Concrete Jungle” and “Chained Heat”. Conlan soon settled down to a quiet but successful career writing episodic television music for shows such as “Tour of Duty” and "The Equaliser", and acclaimed mini series such as “V: The Final Battle” and “The Belarus File”. He has since gone on to be involved with over 100 movies-of-the-week, notably the Emmy-nominated Christopher Reeve thriller “Mortal Sins” (1992), with an occasional feature project to spice up his resume. He recently scored a big hit with director Tobe Hooper’s gory homage to 1970s horror, “The Toolbox Murders” (2003).
Highlight Scores: V: The Final Battle, Stick, Hot Pursuit, The Wrong Guys, Mortal Sins, Shaughnessy, The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn, Big Eden, Jackie, Last Brickmaker in America, The Rosa Parks Story, The Toolbox Murders, Finding Home.
Awards: Emmy nomination for "Mortal Sins" (1992).
Links: Octobersongs: Official Site (WARNING! FLASH HEAVY!)
Marius Constant
Born: 7 February 1925, Bucharest, Romania. Died: 15 May 2004.
Background: The man who wrote the infamous 'doo-doo-doo-doo' theme from "The Twilight Zone", Marius Constant's career in film has been virtually defined by those four simple notes. Studied at the Academy of Bucharest, and before emigrating to France in 1949, where he has spent the majority of the rest of his working career. Undertook further study with Olivier Messaien, Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Honegger, and made his public debut in 1952 with his ballet "Le Joueur de Flûte". During the next 30 years, Constant became one of the major players in French classical music: as well as writing a number of acclaimed classical pieces (including "24 Preludes Pour Orchestre" with Leonard Bernstein, "Impressions De Pelleas" and "Teresa"), he was made Director of the Paris Opera in 1973, and a Professor at the Academy of Paris in 1978. Began composing for film in 1953, but completed just eight scores in his career, the most notable being a screen adaptation of is own opera "La Tragédie De Carmen" in 1983. He died on 15 May 2004 at his home in Paris, aged 79.
Highlight Scores: 1-2-3-4 Ou Les Collants Noirs, La Tragédie De Carmen, The Twilight Zone (TV).
Paolo Conte
Born: 6 January 1937, Asti, Italy.
Background: Iconic, highly original and unusual French composer and songwriter, whose career as a stage performer has outshined his work in film. Originally set on a career in law, Conte’s love of jazz eventually won out: with his brother Giorgio, Conte formed his own jazz band and toured Italy, to rave reviews’ His success in the field led to him being hired as a songwriter and arranger for artists such as Celentano, Caterina Caselli and Enzo Jannacci in the 1960s. Conte released his debut solo album in 1974, and first entered public consciousness in 1979 when his song ‘Un Gelato al Limon’ was a massive hit on the Italian charts. Throughout the 1980s, Conte’s humourous lyrics, catchy rhythms and almost indescribable vocal delivery would propel him to the pinnacle of contemporary Italian jazz; he released several more albums, performed to sell-out audiences, and picked up thousands of fans. A lifelong fan of cinema, Conte began dabbling in film in the early 1980s, writing music for comedies directed by the likes of Lina Wertmuller and Roberto Benigni. He won a David Award (Italian Oscar) in 1997 for his score for the charming Italian animated film “La Freccia Azzurra”, and continues to write and perform to enthralled audience across Europe. Internationally, his most famous songs are ‘Come Di’ and ‘Via Con Me’, the latter of which featured famously in the 1995 film “French Kiss” (the chorus goes “chips, chips, la de-doo-de-doo, she-boom she-boom-boom…”).
Highlight Scores: Tu Mi Turbi, A Joke of Destiny, Sotto Sotto, La Freccia Azzura.
Links: Official Site.
Michael Convertino
Born: May 1951, New York, New York.
Background: American composer Michael Convertino graduated from Yale University, and furthered his musical career studying at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was a member of a successful jazz band, before returning to America in the early 1980s. He achieved a degree of fame as the lead singer of the 80s rock band The Innocents, before turning to film in 1984. He made his film music debut writing music for director Tim Burton's short "Frankenweenie", and scored his first major feature two years later, the critically acclaimed drama "Children of a Lesser God" for director Randa Haines. He went on to write music for a number of critically and commercially successful films, including "Bull Durham" (1988), "The Doctor" (1991), "The Santa Clause" (1994), "Guarding Tess" (1994), "Milk Money" (1994), "Bed of Roses" (1996), "Jungle 2 Jungle" (1997) and "Dance With Me" (1998). In recent years, however, and for no apparent reason, Convertino has virtually vanished from the international scoring scene, having scored only a handful of minor movies since the turn of the millennium, and with nothing of significance on the horizon.
Highlight Scores: The Santa Clause, Jungle 2 Jungle, Bull Durham, The Doctor, Children of a Lesser God, Guarding Tess, Milk Money, Bed of Roses, Dance With Me, The Hidden.
Aaron Copland
Born: 14 November 1900, New York, New York. Died: 2 December 1990.
Background: One of the most respected, influential and important composers of the 20th Century, Aaron Copland was a pioneer of American classical music, who wrote landmark pieces when Americans were rarely recognised as composers in the music world. A talented child, Copland studied in Manhattan with Rubin Goldmark and Victor Wittgenstein, and subsequently at the Summer School of Music for American Students at Fountainebleau, France. While in France, Copland wrote his first commissioned piece - "Symphony for Organ and Orchestra" – which introduced to the world his unique musical output, which fused classical conventions with jazz. Over the next 20 years, Copland would go on to become one of the most important living American composers, writing some of the most influential classical music of the century: his ballets “El Salon Mexico” (1936), “Billy the Kid” (1938), “Rodeo” (1942) and “Appalachian Spring” (1944) almost single-handedly defined the commonly held musical language of the wild west, and his patriotic American anthems “Lincoln Portrait” (1942) and “Fanfare for the Common Man” (also 1942) were written for the Cincinnati Symphony as an uplifting antidote to World War II. While Copland is best known for his concert and ballet works, his film scores – which included the Oscar-nominated “Of Mice and Men” (1939), “Our Town” (1940), “The North Star” (1943) and “The Heiress” (1949), as well as the popular “The Red Pony” (1949) and “Something Wild” (1961) – were amongst the best created during Hollywood’s Golden Age, and served as inspiration for generations of film composers to come. Copland conducted his last symphony in 1983, and subsequently dedicated himself to teaching student at Tanglewood, Harvard, and Juilliard School in New York. In addition, Copland wrote more than sixty articles and essays on music, and travelled as a sort of “self-appointed” roving ambassador advocating modern American classical music. Copland had a stroke and died of respiratory failure on December 2 1990 at his home in North Tarrytown, New York. At the time of his death, he was arguably one of the most important figures in twentieth-century American music.
Highlight Scores: Of Mice and Men, The City, Our Town, The North Star, The Heiress, The Red Pony, Something Wild, He Got Game (posthumous).
Awards: Oscar for "The Heiress" (1949). Nominations for “Of Mice and Men”, “Our Town”, “The North Star”.
Carmine Coppola
Born: 11 June 1910, New York, New York. Died: 26 April 1991.
Background: Italian-American composer and conductor, the patriarch of the successful and influential Coppola family in Hollywood (he is the father of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and the grandfather of actor Nicolas Cage, writer/director Sofia Coppola, writer/director Roman Coppola and actor Jason Schwartzman). He was educated at the Manhattan School of Music and at Juilliard in New York, and began his career as a professional flautist at Radio City Music Hall. He gained further performance experience with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and under Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, before sidestepping into composing and conducting in the 1940s and 50s. He worked regularly on Broadway, acting as music director on successful productions of “Kismet”, “Once Upon a Mattress” and “La Plume de Ma Tante”, but did not make his film music debut until 1962, when he wrote the score for his son Francis’s comedy western “Tonight for Sure”. He wrote additional music for Nino Rota’s “The Godfather” in 1972, won an Oscar for his work on “The Godfather Part II” in 1975, re-scored Abel Gance’s classic 1927 feature “Napoleon” in 1981, and received a great deal of critical acclaim for his work on his son’s films, notably “Apocalypse Now” and “Gardens of Stone”. Coppola died at his home in Northridge, California, on 26 April 1991, aged 80.
Highlight Scores: The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, The Outsiders, Gardens of Stone, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, New York Stories, The Godfather Part III, Hearts of Darkness.
Awards: Oscar for "The Godfather Part II" (1975). Golden Globe for "Apocalypse Now" (1980). Oscar nomination for "The Godfather Part III" (1990), further Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.
Antonio Cora
Born:
Background: A longtime friend of directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, very little is known about composer/musician/sound designer Antonio "Tony" Cora, except that he wrote the ambient, unsettling, sparse score for their smash-hit horror film "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999, and has not been heard of in public since. A number of on-line searches have revealed precisely nothing about this mysterious man except that “his sound room sometimes smelled like a fish market”, and that the only picture of him shows him getting dressed in combat fatigues in preparation for a night-time Blair Witch shoot. Can anyone shed any light on him?
Highlight Scores: The Blair Witch Project.
Normand Corbeil
Born:
Background: Talented French-Canadian composer who is now finally beginning to built on the promise he showed early in his career. First came to prominence in the early 1990s with his orchestral/electronic combination score for director Christian Duguay’s “Screamers”, but seemed to be stuck in straight-to-video hell before finally achieving a degree of success following his scores Bruce Beresford's thriller 1999 "Double Jeopardy" and the Wesley Snipes 2000 action flick "The Art of War". Has since gone on to score a number of successful films, both in Canada and internationally, culminating in an Emmy nomination for his work on the acclaimed TV drama “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” in 2003.
Highlight Scores: Screamers, Never Too Late, The Assignment, Double Jeopardy, The Art of War, Extreme Ops, Hitler: The Rise of Evil, The Statement.
Awards: Emmy nomination for "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" in 2003.
Links: Official Site
Frank Cordell
Born: 1918. Died: 6 July 1980.
Background: Well-respected British composer, best known for his rousing war movie scores in the 1950s. After spending much of his early career as a bandleader and arranger in and around London, he made his film music debut in 1952, and subsequently composed twenty or so scores before his retirement in 1976. Among his career highlights were his Oscar nomination for the 1970 drama "Cromwell", and his rousing score for the 1966 historical epic “Khartoum” starring Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier, and his charming work on the 1969 classic “Ring of Bright Water”, about a tame otter. With his own orchestra, Cordell enjoyed a brief chart success in Britain with the big band themes 'Sadie's Shawl' and 'Black Bear', but never really attained any great level of fame either in Britain or the USA. Died in 1980, aged 62.
Highlight Scores: The Rebel, Khartoum,Ring of Bright Water, Mosquito Squadron, Cromwell, God Told Me To.
Awards: Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for "Cromwell" (1970).
Billy Corgan
Born: 17 March 1967, Elk Grove, Illinois.
Background: Guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter and composer, best known for the “front man” of the hard rock band Smashing Pumpkins between 1988-2000, with whom he released hit albums including Gish, Siamese Dream, Pisces Iscariot, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, Machina, and Machina II. Was a student film maker in his youth; he first began his foray into film in the mid 1990s, contributing additional music to James Horner's “Ransom” and Elia Cmiral's “Stigmata”, and writing original songs for “Batman & Robin”, before going on to scored his first solo film, "Spun" in 2003. Currently developing a number of additional pop an rock projects, including playing with British musicians New Order, and creating a new band named Zwan, as well as continuing to develop his career as a film music artist.
Highlight Scores: Ransom, Stigmata, Spun.
Links: Smashing Pumpkins Page
John Corigliano
Born: 16 February 1938, New York, New York.
Background: Highly respected American composer who works predominantly in the classical field, and who has written just three film scores – “Altered States”, “Revolution”, and the Oscar-winning “The Red Violin”. Born into a musical family - his father, John Sr., was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic from 1943 to 1966 and his mother was an accomplished pianist – Corigliano studied at Columbia College, and under Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic, assisting great man on the series of Young People’s Concerts broadcast on TV in the 1960s. First came to prominence as a composer in his own right after winning the chamber music prize at the 1964 Spoleto Festival for his “Sonata for Violin and Piano”, and has gone on to receive a great deal of acclaim: among his most popular works are the opera "The Ghost of Versailles", the tone poem "Fern Hill" for orchestra and chorus, the “Pied Piper Fantasy” flute concerto, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, the "Cloisters" song cycle, and his first Symphony, written in 1991 as an impassioned response to the AIDS crisis in America. Among his accolades, Corigliano was composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1987-1990, holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College in New York, was elected to the faculty of Juilliard in 1991, was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his "Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra".
Highlight Scores: Altered States, Revolution, The Red Violin.
Awards: Academy Award for "The Red Violin" in 1999. Academy Award nomination for "Altered States" in 1980.
Links: Sony Classical Artist Bio
Jean Corriveau
Born:
Background: French-Canadian composer, engineer and keyboardist whose work, though limited, has seen him win all three Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars) he has been nominated for, for Jean-Claude Lauzon’s crime thriller “Un Zoo La Nuit” (1987) and Lea Pool’s epic drama “La Demoiselle Sauvage” (1991). Corriveau has also been active in the Canadian pop and rock music scene, having played keyboard for artists such as Andre Duchesne and Alain Thibault. Having written very little film music since the turn of the millennium, Corriveau now spends much of his time owning and running Les Studios Nostre-Dame, a state-of-the-art recording studio in Montreal.
Highlight Scores: Un Zoo La Nuit, La Demoiselle Sauvage, Requiem Pour Un Beau Sans-Couer, The Minion.
Vladimir Cosma
Born: 13 April 1940, Bucharest, Romania.
Background: Popular Romanian composer who has spent most of his working career in France. Studied at the Academy of Bucharest, and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, before beginning his career in music as an arranger for Michel Legrand in the late 1950s. Scored his first film in 1967, and has since gone on to be one of the most prolific and well-loved composers working in France, having completed over 200 scores for film and television. Among his international successes are the 1981 crime drama “Diva” directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (on which he made excellent use of extracts from Catalani’s opera “La Wally”), the 1998 comedy “Le Dîner De Cons”, and the 2001 comedy “Le Placard” (The Closet), both of which were directed by Francis Veber. Cosma is a seven-time César (French Oscar) nominee, and has taken home the Award twice.
Highlight Scores: Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chaussure Noire, Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, La Boum, Diva, Le Père Noël Est Une Ordure, Le Bal, Le Gloire de Mon Père, Le Château de Ma Mère, Le Dîner De Cons, Le Placard.
Awards: César Awards for "Diva" in 1981 and "Le Bal" in 1983.
Elvis Costello
Born: 25 August 1954, London, England.
Background: Real name Declan MacManus. British singer/songwriter and composer, born in London but raised in Liverpool, the son of the popular bandleader Ross MacManus. Began performing music in pubs around London in the early 1970s, before landing the record deal that would make him famous in 1977. As a solo artist, and with his band The Attractions, Costello has released a number of acclaimed albums, notably “This Year's Model", "Imperial Bedroom", "King of America", "Blood and Chocolate", "Spike", "All This Useless Beauty" and "When I Was Cruel", and has undertaken successful acclaimed collaborations with artists such as Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter, guitarist Bill Frisell, composer Roy Nathanson and The Charles Mingus Orchestra. Among his most popular songs are titles such as “Accidents Will Happen”, “Miracle Man”, “Shipbuilding”, “Alison” and “She”, which played over the opening credits of the 1999 his movie “Notting Hill”. Costello began composing original music for TV and film in the mid-1980s, and has since gone on to win a BAFTA Award for his collaboration with composer Richard Harvey on the acclaimed 1991 TV series “GBH”, and receive an Oscar nomination for the song “Scarlet Tide” which he wrote in collaboration with producer T-Bone Burnett for the 2003 Civil War drama “Cold Mountain”. Costello was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2003, and is married to jazz singer Diana Krall (his third wife).
Highlight Scores: The Long Journey Home, GBH, Cold Mountain.
Awards: BAFTA Award for “GBH” (1991). Oscar nomination for “Cold Mountain” (2003).
Links: Official Site.
Bruno Coulais
Born: 1960, Paris, France.
Background: Respected French composer who worked predominantly on European television projects before coming to international prominence through his work on the 1996 documentary "Microcosmos". Began his career in Paris, where combined studying violin and piano with attending cultural events near his home in the Latin Quarter. It was at one such event in 1977 that he met documentarian François Riechenbach, who invited Coulais to compose music for his film “Mexico City Magico” despite the young composer being just 18 years of age. Coulais is considered one of the leading musical talents of French cinema, having now worked on over 100 projects over the last 20 years. Among his international successes are films such as the 2000 thriller “Les Rivières Pourpres” (“The Crimson Rivers”) starring Jean Reno, the 2001 fantasy/action “Vidocq” starring Gerard Depardieu, the beautiful 2001 documentary “Le Peuple Migrateur” (“Winged Migration”), and the 2004 drama “Les Choristes”, which won the first ever film music award given by the European Film Academy.
Highlight Scores: Microcosmos, The Count of Monte Cristo, Himalaya, Les Rivieres Pourpres, Harrison’s Flowers, Vidocq, Le Peuple Migrateur, The Chorus (Les Choristes).
Awards: EFA Award for “Les Choristes” (2004). César Awards for "Microcosmos" (1996) and "Himalaya" (1999), nominations for “Les Rivières Pourpres” (2000) and “Le Peuple Migrateur” (2001).
Links: Official Site.
Alexander Courage
Born: 10 December 1919, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Background: Legendary composer and orchestrator, whose most famous composition is the main title theme from the classic 1960s science fiction series "Star Trek". Graduated from the Eastman College of Music with Bachelor's Degree in 1941, and immediately sought work in Hollywood as a composer, copyist and orchestrator. Worked solidly throughout the 50s and 60s, writing music for TV series including "Lost in Space", "Land of the Giants", and of course "Star Trek", and arranging many of the classic Hollywood musicals, including "Singin' in the Rain", "Oklahoma", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Gigi" and “Doctor Dolittle” (for which he was nominated for an Oscar). For over thirty years, Courage was also the lead orchestrator for Jerry Goldsmith, having worked with the late great composer on over 30 projects; he also worked with Alex North, Alfred Newman and many others. Retired in 2000.
Highlight Scores: Star Trek (TV), Day of the Outlaw, The Left Handed Gun, The Pleasure Seekers, Doctor Doolittle, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
Awards: Academy Award nominations for "The Pleasure Seekers" (1964) and "Doctor Doolittle" (1967).
Chris Crilly
Born:
Background: Canadian composer burst out of obscurity when he won a Genie Award (Canadian Oscar) for his work on the 2003 film “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner”, the first movie filmed entirely in the Inuit (Eskimo) language. Studied at Loyola University, and began his career as a cameraman working with the National Film Board of Canada, before he made a sideways move into music in the 1980s. He has since gone on two write over 100 scores, mainly for Canadian documentaries, shorts and animated films, while dabbling in folk music, working with artists such as Barde and Stan Rogers. In addition to his compositional work, Crilly also teaches sound in the Communications Studies Department of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montreal.
Highlight Scores: Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.
Awards: Genie Award for “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner”.
Carlo Crivelli
Born: 15 April 1953, Rome, Italy.
Background: Talented Italian composer and musical academic who studied at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica in L'Aquila, before going on to take a teaching position at the School of Music in Campobasso, Italy. Scored his first film in 1986, and has worked steadily in the Italian film industry since then, often with director Marco Bellocchio. In addition to his film work, Crivelli has written two operas - "Iride" and "La Pazzia di Lear" - and several scholarly classical works. In addition to his composition work, Crivelli currently holds a teaching position at his old school, Conservatorio Statale di Musica in L'Aquila, and is also involved in the work of the Faculty of Etnomusicology at the Universitá La Sapienza in Rome.
Highlight Scores: Il Diavolo in Coepo, Il Principe di Homburg, Marie Baie des Anges, La Balia, Del Perduto Amore, Ginostra.
Michael Csányi-Wills
Born: .
Background: Born in London of Hungarian heritage, Csányi-Wills studied composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music, from where he graduated in 1998. He made his film music debut the following year, working with (as he often does) composer (and former teacher) Nigel Clarke, and has since gone on to co-write scores for a number of successful films, including “Jinnah”, “The Little Vampire”, and the German animation “Der Kleine Eisbär” (The Little Polar Bear”). As a virtuoso concer pianist, Csányi-Wills has performed with many of the world's top orchestras, and has recently worked with the Bulgarian and Budapest Symphony Orchestras, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Csányi-Wills has also written a number of classical pieces, and was recently invited to become composition fellow at the London College of Music and Media.
Highlight Scores: Jinnah, The Little Vampire, The Little Polar Bear, Rocket Post.
Stephen Cullo
Born: 1957, White Plains, New York.
Background: Talented composer and musician, who began his career as a guitar and bass player for hire in and around New York. Began composing music for advertising in the 1980s, and quickly became one of the most successful and sought-after advertising composers in New York, with clients ranging from Nike to Budweiser and L'Oreal. Composed his first score, “Belly”, the debut film of cult music video director Hype Williams, in 1998, and has since gone on to score the Rob Lowe thriller "Proximity" and the popular Warner TV sitcom “All About the Andersons”. In addition to this, Cullo has also become part of Elliot Goldenthal and Teese Gohl’s film music team, having worked as a synth programmer and written additional orchestrations on projects such as "Titus" and "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within".
Highlight Scores: Safehouse, Lucia's Dream, August Roads, Belly, Proximity, The Technical Writer, All About the Andersons (TV).
Links: Official Site
Hoyt Curtin
Born: 9 September 1922, Downey, California. Died: 3 December 2000.
Background: Cult animation composer whose work graced some of the classic Hanna Barbera cartoons of the 1960s and 70s. Played the piano at an early age, played in jazz bands throughout high school, and obtaining his master's degree majored in music from USC after serving aboard a destroyer in the Pacific during World War II. Originally intent on a career in movies, young Curtin instead found himself writing jingles for advertising until two of his long-time clients – men named William Hanna and Joseph Barbera – announced they were going to make cartoons for MGM, and they would like him to be their composer. Beginning in 1957, and for the next 20 years, Curtin would go on to write music for some of the best loved cartoons in history: Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, The Jetsons, Top Cat, Scooby-Doo, Jonny Quest, The Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley, Josie and the Pussycats, The Hair Bear Bunch, Hong Kong Phooey, and many many more. His theme song for “The Flintstones”, originally written in 1960, is arguably one of the most famous and recognisable themes in TV history. Curtin did score a couple of movies, including the cult classic KISS movie “Phantom of the Park” in 1978, and a couple of low budget sci-fi flicks in the 1950s (one of which, “Jail Bait”, was directed by the legendary Ed Wood!), but his heart remained in animation. Curtin retired from composing at the end of the 1980s with a legacy that puts him alongside the likes of Carl Stalling in the annals of cartoon music. He died on 3 December 2000 in hospital in Thousand Oaks, California, aged 78.
Highlight Scores: Dozens of Hanna Barbera TV cartoons, including Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound , The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Jonny Quest, The Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley, Josie and the Pussycats, The Hair Bear Bunch, Hong Kong Phooey. Also Jail Bait, Battle of the Planets (TV), KISS: Phantom of the Park, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords.
Oswald D'Andrea
Born: Tunis, Tunisia.
Background: Italian composer of North African heritage, who has spent much of his working career in France. Initially studied to be a pharmacist, but switched careers in his early 20s and began working as songwriter and pianist in cabaret bars and nightclubs in France. Began composing for film in the mid-1970s, but it was not until 1989, when he won the Cèsar Award (French Oscar) for his work on Bertrand Tavernier’s drama “La Vie et Rien d’Autre” (“Life and Nothing But”) starring Philippe Noiret that he came to public prominence. Has scored just two more films since then, but remains active as a songwriter in Europe, having collaborated with popular musicians such as George Brassens and Raymond Devos.
Highlight Scores: La Vie et Rien d’Autre, Un Week-End Sur Deux, Captain Conan.
Awards: Cèsar Award for “La Vie et Rien d’Autre” (1989).
Nino D'Angelo
Born: 21 June 1957, Patierno, Italy.
Background: Real name Gaetano D’Angelo. Italian actor, composer and musician, who went from selling ice cream on the streets of Naples and singing at weddings to being one of Italy’s most popular recording artists of the 1970s and 80s. Recorded his first solo album, “Or Schippo”, in 1976, which became an overnight success, thanks to D’Angelo’s good looks, blonde hair, and Neapolitan-infused music. Several hit albums followed, and then a branch into cinema, starring and writing the music for the 1981 film “Celebrità”. Over the next 20 years, D’Angelo would go on to appear in over 20 films, writing the music for 10 of them, writing the screenplay for six, and directing two – “Giuro Che Ti Amo” (1986) and “Aitanic” (2000). Among his more successful ventures were “Un Jeans e Un Maglietta” (1983), the comedy/drama “Il Cuore Altrovi” (2003), and the musical “Tano da Morire” (1997), for which he won the David Award (Italian Oscar).
Highlight Scores: Un Jeans e Un Maglietta, Tano da Morire, Vacanze di Natale 2000, Tifosi, Il Cuore Altrovi, Aitanic.
Awards: David Award for “Tano da Morire” (1997).
Links: Official Site
Lucio Dalla
Born: 4 March 1943, Bologna, Italy.
Background: Multi-talented Italian composer, singer, songwriter and actor, most famous for his operatic pop song “Caruso”, which has been performed by several well-known artists, notably Luciano Pavarotti. Began his career as a clarinettist, performing with bands in Italy, before becoming better known as a serious composer in the late 1960s, setting poetic works by Baldazzi and Pallottino to music. Dalla began acting around the same time, his most high-profile performance coming in the 1967 musical western “Rita Del West”. Made his film music debut in 1971, and has since gone on to write songs and score for over 20 films, notably “Borotalco” (1982), “Al Di Là Delle Nuvole” (1995), “Il Frullo Del Passero” (1988) and “Prima Dammi un Baccio” (2003), for all of which he won Italian critics awards. Among his non-film works are several more albums of music based on Italian poetry and literature; a number of popular solo works, notably “Come è profondo il mare”, “Canzoni” and “Dallamericaruso”, from which the song Caruso was taken.
Highlight Scores: La Mortadella, Borotalco, Al Di Là Delle Nuvole, Il Frullo Del Passero, I Picari, Prima Dammi un Baccio, Ricordati Di Me.
Awards: David Awards for “Borotalco” (1982) and “Il Frullo Del Passero” (1988).
Links: Official Site
Burkhard Dallwitz
Born: 28 January 1959, Bad Homburg, Germany.
Background: German-born composer who has spent the majority of his working career in Australia. Studied the piano as a child, and began his career as an arranger and performer with various musical groups in and around Frankfurt. Moved from Germany to Australia in 1979, and undertook further studies at Latrobe University in Melbourne, eventually graduating with an Honours Degree in Composition. Worked solidly in the Australian film and TV industry for over 10 years, on films such as “Bachelor Girl” and “Zone 39”, before being plucked from relative obscurity to co-score Peter Weir's wonderful fantasy "The Truman Show" in 1999 with Philip Glass. His subsequent Golden Globe win seemed to promise great things, but after having his follow-up score for "Supernova" rejected when director Walter Hill was fired from the project by the studio, Dallwitz returned to the Australian scene, where he has since has contributed music to the feature film “Paperback Hero”, the hit TV show “Crash/Burn”, and several other television projects. Away from film music, Dallwitz has also released an original CD of instrumental works entitled “Worlds Apart”, and was heavily involved in the musical side of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Highlight Scores: Zone 39, The Truman Show, Paperback Hero, Crash/Burn.
Awards: Golden Globe for "The Truman Show" in 1999.
Links: Official Site
John Dankworth
Born: 20 September 1927, London, England.
Background: Hugely popular and successful bandleader and jazz composer in the UK, whose work with his singer/wife Cleo Laine have been thrilling audiences since the 1960s. Studied at the Royal Academy of Music, played piano on transatlantic cruise liners and formed the Johnny Dankworth Seven in 1950, to great acclaim. Scored his first film in 1958, and spent much of the following decade as a kind of edgier alternative to John Barry, writing dark jazz scores for successful films such as "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960), "Modesty Blaise" (1966) and "10 Rillington Place" (1971). With Laine, Dankworth has appeared countless times on jazz albums, in concert and on television, having been her permanent bandleader since 1971. Had seemingly hung up his film music baton at the end of the 1970s, but made an unexpected comeback in 2000, scoring the low-budget crime thriller "Gangster No.1". He also wrote a number of popular themes for British TV in the 1960s, notably "The Avengers", "Tomorrow's World" and "Telford's Change". In addition to his composing, Dankworth is the founder of the London Symphony Orchestra's Pops Program, served as the orchestra's Pops Musical Director, and has given hundreds of lectures and conducted classes, workshops and seminars on jazz.
Highlight Scores: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Servant, Darling, Modesty Blaise, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, 10 Rillington Place, Gangster No.1.
Links: Official Site of John Dankworth and Cleo Laine
Jeff Danna
Born: 1964, Burlington, Canada.
Background: Canadian composer, the younger brother of fellow film composer Mychael Danna. Studied piano and guitar at an early age, and has designs on a career as a performance guitarist, before things were cut short following a serious hand injury in late adolescence. Began working in film music in Canada in the 1980s, initially as a featured soloist on some of brother’s scores, before making his own foray into solos composing through TV series such as "Sweating Bullets", "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" and the hugely popular “Beverly Hills 90210”. People began to take notice of him following his score for the New York Irish crime drama “The Boondock Saints” in 1990, which was an enormous success on home video, and he has since begun to carve out a promising career for himself. In addition to his own film music, Jeff co-composed two albums of Celtic music, "A Celtic Romance" and "A Celtic Tale" in collaboration with Mychael, and continues to contribute performance work to other scores.
Highlight Scores: The Boondock Saints, New Blood, Baby, Green Dragon, O, The Kid Stays in the Picture, The Gospel of John, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Tideland, Silent Hill.
Awards: Genie Award nomination for "Cold Comfort" (1999).
Links: Official Site
Ken Darby
Born: 13 May 1909, Hebron, Nebraska. Died: 24 January 1992.
Background: Educated at Christian College, where he studied with Ernst Toch and Victor Young among others, Darby began his career as a vocalist and vocal arranger, creating the King's Men male vocal quartet in 1929, which later became the Ken Darby Singers. After enjoying several years success with the singers, he joined Disney Studios as a writer and production supervisor, and recorded many albums with them, during which time he established a long-term relationship with composer Alfred Newman, which would last until the late 1960s. With Newman, Darby contributed vocal arrangements, orchestrations and 'additional music' to dozens of his more famous partner's best loved scores, including "The Robe", "The Egyptian", "Bus Stop", "How The West Was Won" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told". Remained active until his retirement at the end of the 1960s. He died in 1992, aged 83, at his home in Sherman Oaks, California.
Highlight Scores: The King and I, South Pacific, Porgy and Bess, Flower Drum Song, How The West Was Won, Camelot.
Awards: Academy Awards for "The King and I" (1957), "Porgy and Bess" (1959) and "Camelot" (1967). Three other nominations between 1959-1964.
Peter Dasent
Born: Wellington, New Zealand.
Background: One of New Zealand's most respected musical artists, and who was until recently director Peter Jackson's composer of choice. Studied at Victoria University in Wellington, and played with New Zealand pop bands such as Spats and The Crocodiles before turning his attention to composing full-time. Received acclaim for contributing to three of Jackson's pre-Lord of the Rings projects at home, and currently spends his time writing for New Zealand children's TV productions, notably "Gloria's House", "Playschool" and "Bananas in Pyjamas".
Highlight Scores: Meet the Feebles, Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, Cubbyhouse, Return of the Artful Dodger.
Iva Davies
Born: 22 May 1955, Wauchope, Australia.
Background: Australian composer and arranger, best known internationally for his contribution to the successful and acclaimed 2003 seafaring drama “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”, which he co-wrote with Christopher Gordon and Richard Tognetti. Studied oboe at the New South Wales State Conservatory of Music, and subsequently went on to be guitarist and lead singer of the popular band Icehouse. With Icehouse, Davies had three hits on the American Billboard chart - "We Can Get Together" in 1981, "No Promises" in 1986, and "Touch The Fire" in 1989 – and many more in his native Australia. Made his film music debut in 1984, writing the score for the acclaimed horror movie “Razorback”, and was nominated for an Australian Academy Award for his troubles – but then did not venture back into film for almost 20 years! In addition to his film and rock work has composed numerous songs, notably the hits “No Promises” and “Great Southern Land”, as well as several symphonies and ballets.
Highlight Scores: Razorback, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Links: Iva Davies/Icehouse
Shaun Davey
Born: Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Background: One of Ireland's most respected composers, who was born in Ulster but resides south of the border in Dublin. Prior to the 1990s, Davey was recognised as a critically acclaimed classical artist, who enjoyed 20-year career in that field prior to making his film debut. His most famous non-film works include "The Brendan Voyage", “The Pilgrim”, a "Concerto for Uilleann Pipes and Orchestra", a “Concerto for Two Harps”, and the "Relief of Derry" symphony. He also worked prolifically in theatre, having written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Royal National Theatre in London. He made his film music debut in 1990, and first gained international prominence in the mid 1990s through his work on the popular TV series "Ballykissangel", the epic drama series “The Hanging Gale”, and subsequent works such as the hit comedy "Waking Ned" and the Central American crime drama “The Tailor of Panama”. Davey is married to the acclaimed Irish singer/songwriter Rita Connolly.
Highlight Scores: The Hanging Gale, Ballykissangel, Twelfth Night, Waking Ned, The Tailor of Panama, The Abduction Club.
Awards: BAFTA nominations for "The Hanging Gale" in 1995 and "Ballykissangel" in 1996.
Links: Official Site for Shaun Davey and Rita Connolly
Marty Davich
Born:
Background: Veteran American TV composer, a stalwart of dozens of series and who has been a regular contributor to top-rated shows for almost 30 years. Davich began his career as an on-air piano player for long-running soap opera “Days of Our Lives”, before going to serve as the programme’s music supervisor - a position that he held for nearly 10 years. He went on to compose music for a number of high-profile prime-time television programs in the 1980s and 90s, notably “Beverly Hills 90210”, “Port Charles”, “Presidio Med” and “Trinity”, the latter of which won him an Emmy award in 1998. Most famously, Davich also co-wrote the theme for the smash hit NBC medical drama “ER” with James Newton Howard in 1994, a gig which has seen him win BMI Awards for television music on no less than ten occasions. In addition to writing music for episodic television, Davich has also composed several scores for TV movies, notably “Primal Force” (1999) and “Jackie Ethel and Joan: The Women of Camelot” (2001), a score which saw him receive his second Emmy nominaton.
Highlight Scores: Days of Our Lives (TV), Beverly Hills 90210 (TV), ER (TV), Legacy of Sin: The William Colt Story, Tempting Fate, Trinity (TV), Primal Force, Jackie Ethel and Joan: The Women of Camelot.
Awards: Emmy for “Trinity” (1999).
Christopher Dedrick
Born: 1947, New York, New York.
Background: Canadian-American composer who, following a brief career in the 1970s as a pop artist with his band The Free Design, first came to prominence as the conductor and arranger for international artists such as Peter Paul & Mary, Melissa Manchester, Kenny Loggins, Simon and Garfunkel and James Taylor. A stint in the US Air Force saw Dedrick become chief arranger for the Airmen of Note in Washington, D.C. Upon leaving the services Dedrick moved to Toronto, and focused himself on a career in advertising, television and film. Since then, Dedrick has contributed music to a number of successful projects in a number of capacities: he was nominated for two Golden Reel awards by the Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild in 2000, has worked as an orchestrator and conductor for composers such as Michael Small, Mychael Danna and Christopher Young on some of their most well-known projects, and written music for over 35 film and TV projects in his own right. His biggest success to date came in 2003, winning a Genie Award (Canadian Oscar) for his work on Guy Maddin’s film “The Saddest Music in the World”. In addition to his film and TV work, Dedrick is the current President of the Guild of Canadian Film Composers, and has remained prolific in the concert hall, having undertaken several successful collaborations with the Canadian Brass Ensemble.
Highlight Scores: Million Dollar Babies, Road to Avonlea, The Arrow, The Planet of Junior Brown, The Witness Files, Sally Marshall is Not an Alien, Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story, The Saddest Music in the World.
Awards: Genie for “The Saddest Music in the world” (2003).
Links: Official Site
Joe Delia
Born: 1956, New York, New York.
Background: Dark, edgy American composer best known for his work with director Abel Ferrara. Played piano from an early age, and began his career as a member of his own band The Bruthers, who signed for RCA and which toured with Stevie Wonder, Patti Labelle and Chuck Berry in the late 1960s. Began composing in the 1970s, and initially specialised in children’s programming, writing for the TV show “Lollapalooza” and contributing original songs to the classic "Muppet "Show". That all changed in the mid-1970s when he met controversial director Abel Ferrara and began a 20-year composer/director relationship. Is now best known for his offbeat scores for dramas and thrillers, notably the infamous 1979 slasher flick “Driller Killer”, and the controversial Harvey Keitel drama “Bad Lieutenant” (1992).
Highlight Scores: Driller Killer, King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, Body Snatchers, Dangerous Game, The Addiction, The Funeral, Blackout, No Looking Back, Fever, The Tao of Steve.
Paco De Lucía
Born: 21 December 1947, Cadiz, Spain.
Background: Real name Francisco Sánchez Gómez. Spanish composer, arranger and virtuoso flamenco guitar player whose work in film has been eclipsed by his success as a performer and recording artist. Began playing guitar at the age of 5, studied with José Greco in Madrid in the 1960s, and made his recording debut in 1965, aged just 18. Over the next 30 years, De Lucía would go on to work with some of the world’s most respected Spanish guitar artists, notably Nino Ricardo, Mario Escudero and Camaron de la Isla, and release several albums of flamenco music (both classical interpretations and original works) – his seminal works being the 1969 album “Flamenco Fantasy” and the 1973 piece “Entre Dos Aguas”. De Lucía wrote his first film score in 1976, and stepped onto the world stage in 1983 when he wrote the music for director Carlos Saura’s flamenco-infused drama “Carmen”. De Lucía won a Spanish Oscar and was nominated for a BAFTA for his work, but since then he has written just one more score. He currently continues to play to sellout crowds across Europe, recorded a best-selling version of Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez”, and has recently undertaken successful collaborations with many world artists, notably jazz great Chick Corea.
Highlight Scores: La Sabina, Carmen, The Hit, Flamenco.
Awards: BAFTA nomination for “Carmen” (1983).
Links: Official Site.
Jacques Demy
Born: 5 June 1931, Pontchâteau, France. Died: 27 October 1990.
Background: Better known as a director than a composer, despite having co-written the music for the majority of his films in collaboration with fellow Frenchman Michel Legrand. Studied with filmmakers Paul Grimault and Georges Roquier before making his debut feature in 1961. Quickly became a well-regarded member of the French "New Wave" set that included François Truffaut and others, and achieved international success through his two musical romances, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) and "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (1968), both of which were Oscar-nominated. Continued working up until his death of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1990. Was married to fellow film director Agnes Varda.
Highlight Scores: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort.
Awards: Academy Award nominations for "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) and "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (1968).
François De Roubaix
Born: 3 April 1939, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Died: 22 November 1975.
Background: Respected French composer, prolific in the 1960s and 70s. Born into an artistic household (his Belgian father was a documentarian, his Italian mother a painter) De Roubaix taught himself trombone, guitar and jazz piano as a child, and briefly studied music in the New Orleans, Louisiana with George Billecard before returning to France to embark on a career in film and TV music. Made his debut in 1959, and over the next 25 years would go on to write almost 100 scores for European productions, including collaborations with directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville, Josè Giovanni and Robert Enrico. A life-long scuba diver, De Roubaix was tragically killed while diving off the coast of the Canary Islands in November 1975, before he could fully capitalise on his talents. He subsequently went on to win a Cèsar Award (French Oscar) for his score for “Le Vieux Fusil”, written just months before his death, making him the only posthumous Award winner in the history of the French Academy.
Highlight Scores: Le Samourai, Les Aventuriers, Adieu l’Ami, Diaboliquement Vôtre, L’Homme Orchestre, Le Rouge Aux Lèvres, La Scoumoune, Le Vieux Fusil.
Awards: Cèsar Award for “Le Vieux Fusil” (1975).
Links: Official Site.
Manuel De Sica
Born: 24 November 1949, Rome, Italy.
Background: Italian composer and conductor, the son of legendary actor/director Vittorio de Sica. Studied music in Rome with Bruno Maderna and – obviously influenced by the family business – made his film music debut in 1968, writing music for his father’s film “Amanti”, when aged just 19. De Sica has since gone on to write music for almost 100 Italian productions (most of which, bizarrely, seem to have alliterative titles such as “Dellamorte Dellamore” and “Volere Volare”), including seven directed by his father, but also efforts by such artists as Ettore Scola, Roberto Rossellini, Claude Chabrol and Dino Risi. De Sica was nominated for a Grammy for one of his first scores, “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” in 1970, and won an Italian Oscar in 1996. In addition to his film work, De Sica has also written a number of classical, symphonic and chamber music pieces, as well as songs which have been recorded by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett.
Highlight Scores: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Una Breve Vacanza, Sunday Lovers, Ladri di Saponette, Volere Volare, Al Lupo Al Lupo, Dellamorte Dellamore, Uomini Uomini Uomini, Celluloide.
Awards: David Award for “Celluloide” (1996). Grammy nomination for “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” (1970).
Alexandre Desplat
Born: 23 August 1961, Paris, France.
Background: Young, talented French composer in the classical mould, who is considered to one of the leading musical lights of that country's film industry, and a natural successor to the likes of Delerue and Jarre. Studied music in both Paris and Los Angeles, and worked as an arranger in his home country before scoring his first films in the early 1990s. Has since gone on to work on several critically acclaimed French films in recent years, and has developed relationships with notable directors such as Jacques Audiard and Marion Vernoux. Nominated for César awards in 1997 and 2002, and broke into the international scene in 2003 following his work on the acclaimed film “Girl With a Pearl Earring” about the Dutch painter Jan Vermeer. Since then, he has become one of the “hot young composers” of Hollywood, with critical and commercial successes such as “Birth”, “Hostage”, “The Upside of Anger” and “Firewall” to his name.
Highlight Scores: The Hour of the Pig, Innocent Lies, A Self Made Hero, Love etc., The Revengers Comedies, The Luzhin Defence, Sur Mes Lèvres, Le Pacte du Silence, Girl With a Pearl Earring, Birth, Hostage, The Upside of Anger, The Beat My Heart Skipped, Syriana, Casanova, Firewall.
Awards: Golden Globe nomination for “Syriana”. Golden Globe, BAFTA and EFA nominations for "Girl With a Pearl Earring". Cèsar nominations for “A Self Made Hero” and “Sur Mes Lèvres”.
Adolph Deutsch
Born: 20 October 1897, London, England. Died: 1 January 1980.
Background: English-born composer of German heritage, Deutsch studied at London Polytechnic and the Royal Academy of Music, before emigrating to the USA in 1910, and becoming a US citizen in 1920. Began his career as a composer, arranger and conductor for dance bands, before eventually receiving acclaim as a respected music director and arranger on Broadway. After enjoying brief commercial success leading his own orchestra, Deutsch came to Hollywood in 1930, and quickly became the composer of choice for respected directors such as Frank Capra and Mervyn Le Roy. Received great acclaim in the 1950s, writing the incidental underscore for the big screen adaptations of Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals such as "Show Boat", "The Band Wagon", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Oklahoma!", winning three Oscars in the process. Continued working until 1961, and then retired to Palm Desert, California, where he died in 1980 aged 83.
Highlight Scores: High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, Little Women, Annie Get Your Gun, Father of the Bride, Show Boat, The Band Wagon, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Oklahoma, Funny Face, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment.
Awards: Academy Awards for "Annie Get Your Gun" (1951), "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954) and "Oklahoma" (1956). Nominations for "Show Boat" (1952) and "The Band Wagon" (1954).
Ian Devaney
Born:
Background: British composer and arranger whose only foray into the film music world to date was to write the score for the 1999 film "Swing", the feature film debut of his wife, singer Lisa Stansfield. Devaney has been much more successful and prolific in the British pop scene, having worked as a producer, arranger and musician with artists including Coldcut, Blue Zone, Richard Darbyshire and Living In A Box for over 20 years.
Highlight Scores: Swing
Frank De Vol
Born: 20 September 1911, Moundsville, West Virginia. Died: 27 October 1999.
Background: Popular composer, conductor, occasional actor, and bandleader who, in addition to his film music career, released a number of successful easy listening albums under the moniker 'De Vol'. Studied at Ohio University, played violin and saxophone, and began his career as an arranger for big bands. Was the bandleader for the Rosemary Clooney TV show in the 1950s, and was a mainstay in TV and films until the early 1980s. Regularly worked with director Robert Aldrich. Chalked up many on-screen appearances as an actor, including roles in "The Parent Trap" (1961), "The Big Mouth" (1967), and guest slots on sitcoms such as "My Favourite Martian", "The Brady Bunch" and "I Dream of Jeannie".
Highlight Scores: Pillow Talk, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, Cat Ballou, Flight of the Phoenix, The Trouble with Angels, The Dirty Dozen, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, Krakatoa East of Java, Herbie Goes Bananas, themes for The Brady Bunch, Family Affair, My Three Sons
Awards: Five-time Oscar nominee, for "Pillow Talk" (1959), "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" (1964), "Cat Ballou" (1965) and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967).
Barry De Vorzon
Born: 31 July 1934, New York, New York.
Background: Popular composer of the 1970s who enjoyed a brief career as a pop artist before segueing into film. With his long time collaborator, Perry Botkin Jr., De Vorzon formed Barry and the Tamerlaines, who enjoyed a modicum of success in the mid-1960s before deciding to split. De Vorzon and Botkin subsequently hit the film music scene in 1970, causing a sensation with their first score, "Bless the Beasts and Children", the main theme from which was later used to great effect as the music for the daytime soap "The Young and the Restless", and subsequently became a hit single in American when gymnast Nadia Comaneci used it in her gold-medal winning Olympic routine. Spent most of the 70s working with acclaimed directors such as Sidney Lumet, John Milius and Walter Hill, composing music for 'blaxploitation' pics and TV series such as "S.W.A.T." and "Dog & Cat", but by the late 1980s, his star had faded; he has now not written a score since 1990.
Highlight Scores: Bless the Beasts and Children, Dillinger, Hard Times, The Warriors, Xanadu, The Ninth Configuration, Stick, The Exorcist III.
Awards: Oscar and Grammy nominations for "Bless the Beasts and Children" (1971).
Marius De Vries
Born: 1961, London, England.
Background: British composer of South African heritage, who has been at the cutting edge of music technology and programming for over 15 years. Studied violin and piano as a child, and was head chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, before embarking on a career as a music journalist, with a neat sideline as a session musician. With the advent of MIDI sequencers in the early 1990s, De Vries made a sideways move and quickly found himself one of England’s foremost programmers: during the 1990s he worked on all of Björk's three solo albums, Madonna's album “Bedtime Stories” and the single 'Frozen' and collaborated with artists as varied as Eno, U2 and Annie Lennox. As a producer, De Vries collaborated with Robbie Robertson, Neil Finn and Massive Attack, the latter of which led to him working with Craig Armstrong on his album “The Space Between Us”, which in turn led to De Vries working with Armstrong and producer Nellee Hooper on the 1997 film “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet”. Since then De Vries has continued to divide his time between the worlds of pop and film, having subsequently worked on the ill-fated 1998 remake of “The Avengers”, the 1999 thriller “Eye of the Beholder”, Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 musical extravaganza “Moulin Rouge!”
Highlight Scores: William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Eye of the Beholder, Moulin Rouge!.
Awards: BAFTA for “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet”.

Neil Diamond
Born: 24 January 1941, Brooklyn, New York.
Background: Exceptionally popular recording artist, with a string of hits stretching back over 30 years. Attended New York Erasmus high School (where he was a classmate of Barbra Streisand) and NYU, where he originally aspired to a career in medicine before switching to concentrate on music full-time. He began his career as a songwriter-for-hire, and had written a number of hits for other artists (notably “I’m A Believer” for The Monkees) before branching out on his own with the hit song “Cherry Cherry” in 1966. Over the next decade Diamond would go on to release dozens of successful albums, and enjoy hit records such as "Kentucky Woman", "Solitary Man”, “You Don't Bring Me Flowers", “Love on the Rocks”, “Crunchy Granola Suite”, "America" and "Heartlight”. By the mid-70s Diamond was playing to sell-out crowds and was regarded as one of the greatest American singer-songwriters of his generation. Having had a long standing interest in the cinema, he mad his film music debut in 1973, working in collaboration with composer Lee Holdridge on the songs and score for the wildlife drama “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”. Although the film was a flop, the soundtrack album was a great success, won Diamond a Golden Globe and a Grammy, and led to further film work: he starred in and wrote songs for the 1980s musical “The Jazz Singer”, wrote the main title theme for 1988 knockabout comedy “Switching Channels” and contributed additional music for a number of his own TV specials in the 1980s. Today, Diamond remains one of music’s great entertainers, who continues to play to packed audiences and release hit albums around the world.
Highlight Scores: Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Jazz Singer, Switching Channels.
Awards: Golden Globe and Grammy for “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, nominations for “The Jazz Singer”.
Links: Official Site.
Andrew Dickson
Born:
Background: Respected British stage composer, and regular cinematic collaborator with director Mike Leigh. Began his career in the theatre, working variously as an actor, musician, director, writer, music director and composer, and during the 1970s worked some of the finest companies in the United Kingdom, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Company of the Nottingham Playhouse, the Company of the Sheffield Crucible, the Company of the Oxford Playhouse, the Company of Queens Hornchurch, the Liverpool Everyman theatre, The Royal Court, the Cambridge Theatre Company, the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, and the Kageboushi Theatre Company in Tokyo. Made his film music debut in the late 1980s, winning a European Film Award for his score for Leigh’s “High Hopes”, before going on to work on films such as “Naked” (1993), “Secrets & Lies” (1996), “All or Nothing” (2001) and “Vera Drake” (2004).
Highlight Scores: High Hopes, Naked, Secrets & Lies, All or Nothing, Vera Drake.
Loek Dikker
Born: 1944, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Background: One of Holland’s foremost film composers. Originally a jazz musician, Dikker first came to fame as the leader of the Waterland Trio, a jazz combo who enjoyed a great deal of success around the Netherlands in the 1970s. Made his film music debut in 1981, writing music for the harrowing drama “Twee Vorstinnen En Een Vorst”, and achieved a degree of international following his score for director Paul Verhoeven’s film “De Vierde Man”. During the 1980s and 90s Dikker scored a number of successful films, both in Holland and internationally, and even won a Saturn Award from the American Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for his score for the horror film “Body Parts” in 1992. Away from the world of film, Dikker continues to enjoy a great deal of celebrity in his native Holland, where he is still well-known as a classical artist and jazz composer.
Highlight Scores: De Vierde Man, Pascali’s Island, Body Parts, The Babysitter, The Commissioner, Führer Ex, Science Fiction, Rosenstrasse.
James Di Pasquale
Born: 7 April 1941, Chicago, Illinois.
Background: Prolific American composer, who has written over 50 scores, mainly for television, since making his debut in late 1960s. Began performing saxophone in jazz clubs around Illinois, learning his trade from such luminaries as Joe Daley, before making his way to California and the film industry. During the 1960s and 70s Di Pasquale enjoyed a fruitful career writing for episodic series such as “Colombo”, “Hawaii Five-O”, “Switch” and “The Practice”, but first came to prominence as a composer in his own right following his Emmy nomination for the song “If This Is Love” he wrote in collaboration with Carol Connors for the 1981 TV movie “Advice to the Lovelorn”. Since then, Di Pasquale has continued to write television, winning two further Emmy Awards on the way, and writing additional music for successful theatrical films such as “One Crazy Summer” (with Cory Lerios) and “Armed and Dangerous” (with Bill Meyers). In addition to his film work, Di Pasquale has also written a number of classical pieces, notably a Sonata for Tenor Saxophone and Piano.
Highlight Scores: The Jericho Mile, Fast Break, Quarterback Princess, One Crazy Summer, Armed and Dangerous, Rad, The Shell Seekers, The Killing Mind.
Awards: Emmy Awards for “Love Loves On” (1985) and “The Shell Seekers” (1989).
Ramin Djawadi
Born: 1977, Germany.
Background: Young German composer attached to Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures stable. Began life playing guitar in a variety of bands in his native country, before moving to the USA to study film scoring and guitar performance at the Berklee College of Music. Became a member of the popular Massachusetts band My Favourite Relative while still studying, and when they were nominated for seven Boston Music Awards in 1999, Los Angeles took notice. Djawadi moved to California to join Media Ventures in 2000, and began work immediately assisting composer Jeff Rona on his score for “Exit Wounds”, and then working with German composer Klaus Badelt on projects such as “The Time Machine”, “K:19: The Widowmaker”, “Equilibrium”, “The Recruit”, “Ned Kelly” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Took the lead on his first solo scores in 2004, writing music for “Thunderbirds” and taking over from composer Terence Blanchard on “Blade Trinity”. Whether his career will develop on the same lines as former MV alumni Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell and Badelt remains to be seen…
Highlight Scores: Thunderbirds, Blade Trinity.
Robert Emmett Dolan
Born: 3 August 1906, Hartford, Connecticut. Died: 26 September 1972.
Background: Acclaimed and successful American composer, responsible for writing the score for one of the biggest inflation-adjusted hit movies of all time, "The Bells of St. Mary's". Studied at Loyola College, and subsequently with Mortimer Wilson, Joseph Schillinger, and Ernst Toch, before entering the film world in 1941 as a music director for MGM. Received eight Oscar nominations for different films in the 1940s, but he never actually took home an award. Dolan diversified and became a studio executive in the 1950s, working as a producer on classic films such as "White Christmas" (1954, which re-used his own music from 1942's "Holiday Inn") and "Anything Goes" (1956), and scored his last films in 1959. Dolan was also a prolific songwriter and Broadway MD, having been involved in productions of "Good News", "Follow Through", "Flying Colors" and "Strike Me Pink", as well as having written popular songs such as "Your Heart Will Tell You So", "Little By Little", "Song of the Highwayman", "Out of the Past", "Big Movie Show in the Sky" and "Talk to Me, Baby". Died in 1972, aged 65.
Highlight Scores: Birth of the Blues, The Major and the Minor, Once Upon a Honeymoon, Holiday Inn, Star Spangled Rhythm, Lady in the Dark, Incendiary Blonde, Murder He Says, The Bells of St. Mary's, Blue Skies, Road to Rio, My Favourite Brunette, The Three Faces of Eve.
Awards: Eight Oscar nominations between 1941-1947.

Klaus Doldinger
Born: 12 May 1936, Berlin, Germany.
Background: World renowned German composer, equally respected as a jazz artist and saxophonist. Studied at the Robert Schumann Conservatoire in Düsseldorf, and formed his first jazz group, The Feetwarmers, in 1952, and immediately had an impact on the European jazz scene. He toured successfully throughout Europe and the USA in the 1960s, playing at jazz festivals from Munich to New Orleans, releasing many successful albums with The Feetwarmers, with his other group Passport, and as a solo artist (he went by the name Oscar Doldinger), receiving almost unanimous critical acclaim. Following the performance of his first jazz orchestral piece, “Jazzconcertino” in 1969, Doldinger began to show an interest in composing for film and TV; he combined his career as a recording artist with work writing music for German productions, before coming to world-wide fame following his score for director Wolfgang Petersen’s classic submarine drama “Das Boot” in 1981. Since then, Doldinger has written music for a number of successful films, including further efforts for Petersen and director Volker Schlöndorff, but rarely outside of Germany. He continues to successfully record and perform his jazz music to sell-out crowds across Europe, while remaining active in the German film industry.
Highlight Scores: Das Boot, The NeverEnding Story, Ich Und Er, Salt on Our Skin, Palmetto, Tatort (series of German TV movies)
Links: Official Klaus Doldinger/Passport Site
François Dompierre
Born: 1 July 1943, Ottawa, Canada.
Background: Popular and well-respected French-Canadian composer, whose work domestically has seen him become one of the most sought-after artists in his native country. Studied piano and organ as a child, graduated from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, and began his career as a singer-songwriter and accompanist around Montreal. Several of his songs were recorded by famous Canadian jazz singers, and he released a self-titled album of his own in 1974, to great acclaim, before abandoning his career as a performer to concentrate full time on orchestral composition. He had already made his film music debut in 1970, and had already won a Genie Award (Canadian Oscar) in 1984, but did not truly come to prominence in the film world until the release of his 1986 score for Denys Arcand’s film “Le Dèclin de l’Empire Américain”. Since then, Dompierre has been nominated for a further seven Genies, winning on three occasions, and has written music for such successful projects as the dramatic mini-series “Jesus of Montreal”, and the films “Stardom” and “Betty Fisher”. Away from film, Dompierre is a respected classical composer and conductor; he has wielded the baton in front of Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Paris Opera, and written a number of acclaimed classical pieces, notably a Sonata for Ondes Martenot and Piano, a piece for harmonica and organ, and a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Highlight Scores: Mario, Le Matou, Le Dèclin de l’Empire Américain, Les Portes Tournantes, Jesus of Montreal (TV), L’Homme Idéal, Laura Cadieux, Stardom, Betty Fisher, L’Odyssée d’Alice Tremblay.
Awards: Genie Awards for “Mario”, “Le Matou”, “L’Homme Idéal” and “Laura Cadieux”.
Jim Dooley
Born: 22 August 1976, New York, New York.
Background: Talented young American composer whose career is being fostered by Hans Zimmer through the Media Ventures organisation. Studied at New York University, and attended the University of Southern California's Film Scoring programme before joining Media Ventures as a fledgling composer in 1999. Has since contributed "additional music" to a number of their popular and successful scores, notably “Gladiator”, “Hannibal”, “Pearl Harbor”, “Black Hawk Down”, “The Ring” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”, scored the TV drama “Life on Liberty Street” starring Annabeth Gish, and recently made his feature debut scoring the remake of the classic horror/thriller “When A Stranger Calls” (2006). Look for big things in future.
Highlight Scores: Agua Dulce, Life on Liberty Street, When a Stranger Calls, additional music on Black Hawk Down, The Ring, Tears of the Sun, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Links: Official Site.
Steve Dorff
Born: 21 April 1949, New York, New York.
Background: Dorff studied at the University of Georgia, and initially began working in music as a songwriter and arranger on the country scene. Made his film music debut in the late 1970s, writing songs and underscore for the Clint Eastwood comedy "Every Which Way But Loose", and has since gone on to enjoy a successful career on the fringes of Hollywood, specialising in "cowboy" music, and assignments that involve arranging country songs for orchestral performance. In addition, he has written music for a number of successful TV series, including "Growing Pains", Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories", "Major Dad" "Murphy Brown" and the recent "Reba" and "Tremors". In addition to his film work, Dorff has written a slew of highly successful pop songs, including several #1 hits, for artists such as Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, George Strait, Vanessa Williams, and Anne Murray, notably her signature song "I Just Fall In Love Again". Steve is the father of the popular actor Stephen Dorff, and singer-songwriter Andrew Dorff.
Highlight Scores: Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, Cannonball Run II, Rustlers Rhapsody, Back to the Beach, My Best Friend is a Vampire, Pink Cadillac, Pure Country, Dancer Texas Pop.81, Blast from the Past, Dudley Do-Right.
Awards: Emmy nomination for "Major Dad" (1992).
Links: Official Site.
Jonathan Dove
Born:
Background: Best known as a composer of operas and choral music, Dove has only written four film scores in his career, but each one has been universally acclaimed. His most successful classical works include the comedy opera "Flight", the dramatic operas "Siren Song", "Tobias and the Angel" and "L'Augellino Belverde", a string quartet, a saxophone quintet, several song cycles and carols, and (as he hails from a family of architects" several pieces written to commemorate the opening of buildings). Dove is also an accomplished and successful theatre composer, having written scores for the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Highlight Scores: Venus Peter, People's Century, Prague, When She Died.
Carmen Dragon
Born: 28 July 1914, Antioch, California. Died: 28 March 1984.
Background: American composer, conductor and arranger. Studied at San Jose College and began his career as an arranger with Meredith Willson's orchestra, before going on to achieve a great deal of fame as the principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a post which he held throughout the 1940s. Made his film music debut in 1941, and won an Oscar three years later for his work with Morris Stoloff on "Cover Girl". Recorded extensively with the Capitol Symphony Orchestras, and arranged for a number of American radio and television programs, and continued to work in film until the mid-1960s. Died in 1984 aged 69.
Highlight Scores: Texas, Cover Girl, The Time of Your Life, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The People Against O'Hara, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Awards: Academy Award for "Cover Girl" (1944).
Elizabeth Drake
Born: Australia.
Background: Australian composer and classical pianist, best known for her score for the 2003 drama “Japanese Story”, for which she won an AFI Award (Australian Oscar) Studied piano in Melbourne, Siena and London, and performed with the Australian Youth Orchestra under Willem van Otterloo before developing an interest in theatre and film while at Melbourne University. Began her career in film in the 1980s, working on a series of short films and political documentaries from her base in Sydney, beginning with “For Love Or Money” (1983) a feature-length documentary about women and work in Australia. She received a Guild of Screen Composer's Award for Special Achievement in Sound Design for her work on the documentary feature “Breathing Underwater” (1991), and composed her fist dramatic score, “Road to Nhill” in 1997. Away from film, Drake lectures in film theory at Universities across Australia, and and continues to write music for theatre and dance projects alongside her film work.
Highlight Scores: Breathing Underwater, Road to Nhill, Lost, Japanese Story.
Awards: AFI Award for “Japanese Story”.
Antoine Duhamel
Born: 30 July 1925, Valmondois, France.
Background: Active in cinema since the late 1950s, Antoine Duhamel is one of the "older generation" of French film music composers. He studied under Olivier Messaien at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was regarded as one of France's best young classical musicians in the 1940s, writing a concerto for viola, a sonata for piano and violin, a variation on Schoenberg's Op.19, and an opera "The Marriage" within five years of his graduation. His work on a short film by the avant-garde animator Albert Champeaux led to a new love of music for film, and he went on to collaborate with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette and Barbet Schroeder, in a career which has now encompassed almost 100 scores. In addition, Duhamel has written several other operas, notably "The Wop", "The Opera of the Birds", "Penthee", and the critically acclaimed "Villeurbanne Symphony". Has been nominated for five César awards between 1976 and 2003, but never won.
Highlight Scores: Bed & Board, Wild Child, Death Watch, Pierrot le Fou, Weekend, Baisers Volés, Que la Fête Commence, La Chanson de Roland, La Mort en Direct, Belle Époque, Ridicule, La Niña de Tus Ojos, Laissez-Passer.
Awards: Cèsar nominations for “Que la Fête Commence”, “La Chanson de Roland”, “La Mort en Direct”, “Ridicule” and “Laissez-Passer”.
Links: Tribute Site by François Piatier
Tan Dun
Born: 18 August 1957, Simao, Hunan Province, China.
Background: Arguably China's most respected and famous classical composer, Tan Dun studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, supplementing his income by working part-time as a rice planter, before moving to New York on a scholarship to attend Columbia University. Among his most acclaimed classical works are the tone poem "Water Passion After St. Matthew", his "Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra", the operas "Marco Polo", "Peony Pavilion" and "Tea", and his "Heaven/Earth/Mankind" symphony, composed in 1997 to commemorate the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. He also wrote music for the United Kingdom's Year 2000 Millennium celebrations. A relative late comer to the world of film music, Dun composed his first score in 1994, for the crime thriller “Fallen”, but has since achieved a great deal of fame and popularity through his Oscar-winning score for the 2000 martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”, and the similarly-themed “Hero”.
Highlight Scores: Fallen, In the Name of the Emperor, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero.
Awards: Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" in 2000. Received a Golden Globe nomination for the same work, and an Oscar nomination for his song from the movie.
Links: Offical Site from Sony Classical
George Duning
Born: 25 February 1908, Richmond, Indiana. Died: 27 February 2000.
Background: Played trumpet and piano for the Kay Kyser band, later arranging most of the music for Kyser's popular "Kollege of Musical Knowledge" radio program. When Duning appeared on-screen as part of Kyser band's in "Carolina Moon" (1944), his work was noticed, and he was offered a contract by Columbia. Regularly worked with composer Morris Stoloff. Much of his output was as "uncredited" stock music, taken from the hours of music he wrote for the Columbia archives, giving him an actual credit list of almost 400 titles.
Highlight Scores: Jolson Sings Again, No Sad Songs For Me, Lorna Doone, From Here to Eternity, The Man from Laramie, Picnic, The Eddy Duchin Story, 3:10 to Yuma, Pal Joey, Toys in the Attic, The Man With Bogart's Face.
Awards: Five-time Oscar nominee, for "Jolson Sings Again" (1949), "No Sad Songs For Me" (1950), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), "Picnic" (1955) and "The Eddy Duchin Story" (1956).
John Du Prez
Born: 14 December 1946, Sheffield, England.
Background: British composer and respected organ player who has spent much of his working career in collaboration with one or more of the Monty Python troupe. As an old friend of Michael Palin (who also hails from Sheffield), DuPrez arranged a number of classic Python songs, from "Sit on My Face" to "Finland", and scored a number of directorial efforts by Python Terry Jones and British institution Michael Winner. Achieved a small degree of fame as a result of his work on the hugely successful "A Fish Called Wanda", and later went on to enjoy a taste of Hollywood through the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies, but has not scored a major film since 1997. Since then, Du Prez has busied himself being the music director for Eric Idle’s American tours, and collaborating with his old colleagues Neil Innes and John Altman on a number of projects.
Highlight Scores: Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Once Bitten, Personal Services, A Fish Called Wanda, UHF, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Carry on Columbus, A Good Man in Africa, Fascination.
Bob Dylan
Born: 24 May 1941, Duluth, Minnesota.
Background: Real name Robert Zimmermann. Seminal rock and folk icon, regarded as one of the most influential songwriter and performers of the 20th century. A high school drop-out with a high IQ, Dylan played piano and guitar as a child, and drifted across USA playing in folk bands from Minneapolis to New York towards the end of the 1950s. He was signed to a the Columbia record label after being discovered playing in a Greenwich Village folk club, and before long songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “The Times They Are-A-Changin” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” were speaking to a generation of disaffected Americans. Dylan was hailed as a folk hero and, along with artists such as Joan Baez and Donovan, was one of the founding fathers of the “hippie counterculture” which developed towards the end of the decade, and was instrumental in injecting political and social commentary into popular music. At the same time, Dylan maintained a healthy career writing songs for other artists, notably “All Along the Watchtower” for Jimi Hendrix, material for artists such as Sonny & Cher, Donovan, and The Byrds, and classic lyrics such as “Knockin’ on heaven’s Door” and “Like a Rolling Stone”. Having already made his mark as a documentarian, making films which echoes his political sensibilities, Hollywood reared its head in the 1970s. He wrote the score for “Little Fauss and Big Halsey” in 1971, and appeared in and scored Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, arguably his greatest achievement in the genre. Over the next 20 years he would contribute songs to over 50 films, but never wrote another score; he directed his own film, “Renaldo and Clara” in 1978, and made a splash in 2003 co-writing and directing “Masked & Anonymous” with Larry Charles under the pseudonym Sergei Petrov, and he won a long-overdue Oscar in 2001 for the song he wrote for the Michael Douglas film “Wonder Boys”, but his greatest contribution remains in the field of folk rock. His legacy is unsurpassed.
Highlight Scores: Little Fauss and Big Halsey, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, dozens of original songs for films between 1970-date.
Awards: Oscar and Golden Globe for the song “Things Have Changed” from “Wonder Boys”. BAFTA and Grammy nominations for “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”
Links: Official Site.


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