Favorite Composers
by HollisWoods | created - 20 Feb 2020 | updated - 2 months ago | Public
1. John Williams
Composer | Jurassic Park
As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 52 Oscar ...
2. James Newton Howard
Composer | King Kong
James Newton Howard attended the University of Southern California's music school, but dropped out to tour with Elton John, and eventually compose music for film and television. He started with Head Office (1985) in 1985. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. He currently is a songwriter, ...
3. Hans Zimmer
Composer | Gladiator
German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to ...
4. Danny Elfman
Music_department | The Nightmare Before Christmas
As Danny Elfman was growing up in the Los Angeles area, he was largely unaware of his talent for composing. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Danny and his older brother Richard Elfman started a musical troupe while in Paris; the group "Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo" was created for Richard's ...
5. Yôko Shimomura
Soundtrack | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Yôko Shimomura was born on October 19, 1967 in Hyogo, Japan. She is a composer, known for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope (2022) and Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016).
6. Nobuo Uematsu
Composer | Fainaru fantajî sebun adobento chirudoren
He's been called the John Williams of the video game world, and the description is apt. Born in Kouchi City, Japan on March 21, 1959, Nobuo started playing the piano at the age of 12 and has never been formerly taught. By his own admission, he said he wanted to learn to play the piano because he ...
7. Joe Hisaishi
Composer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Joe Hisaishi was born on December 6, 1950 in Nakano, Japan. He is a composer and director, known for Spirited Away (2001), The Boy and the Heron (2023) and Fireworks (1997). He is married to Ayame Fujisawa . They have one child.
8. Christophe Beck
Composer | Frozen
Christophe Beck was born in 1968 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a composer and actor, known for Frozen (2013), Ant-Man (2015) and The Muppets (2011).
9. Alan Silvestri
Composer | The Polar Express
In his ongoing, decades-long career as a composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. With a credit list of over 100 films Silvestri has composed some of the most recognizable and ...
10. Michael Giacchino
Composer | Star Trek
Michael Giacchino is an American composer of music for films, television and video games.
Giacchino composed the scores to the television series Lost, Alias and Fringe, the video game series Medal of Honor and Call of Duty and many films such as The Incredibles (2004), Star Trek (2009), Up (2009), ...
11. Alan Menken
Soundtrack | Beauty and the Beast
Alan Menken is an American composer, songwriter, music conductor, director and record producer.
Menken is best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores and songs for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and ...
12. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Soundtrack | Smurfs
Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Vyatka region, Russia. He was the second of six children (five brothers and one sister). His father, named Ilya Chaikovsky, was a mining business executive in Votkinsk. His father's ancestors were from Ukraine and Poland. His ...
13. Ludwig van Beethoven
Soundtrack | Elysium
Beethoven was the child of a Flamian musician family and became a member of the electoral orchestra of Bonn in 1783. In 1787 he studied at Mozart's in Vienna and in 1792 he moved all to Vienna becoming a student of Joseph Haydn. The Vienna High Society loved him as a piano player as well as as ...
14. Bear McCreary
Composer | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Bear McCreary is a degreed graduate of the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music (in 'Composition and Recording Arts'). Bear McCreary was one of a small and select group of proteges of the late, many-honored film composer Elmer Bernstein. Although he is now firmly in the mainstream of film ...
15. Alexandre Desplat
Composer | The King's Speech
Composer and conductor Alexandre Desplat, Oscar winner and seven-time Academy Award nominated, for his prolific filmography and his collaborations with Stephen Frears, Terrence Malick, Ang Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, Jacques Audiard, Wes Anderson, Roman Polanski, George Clooney or Matteo Garrone is one ...
16. Nicholas Britell
Composer | Moonlight
Three-time Academy Award-nominated composer and pianist Nicholas Britell is known for his critically acclaimed scores on feature films with Academy Award winning writer-directors Barry Jenkins and Adam McKay. In 2018, Britell wrote the highly acclaimed score for Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could...
17. Natalie Holt
Composer | Obi-Wan Kenobi
Natalie Holt is a multi-award-winning British composer, known for her work on Marvel Studios' Loki and the acclaimed Lucasfilm series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Upcoming projects include DC's Batgirl as well as Fox's female super hero feature The Princess.
Her film and television credits include the BAFTA ...
18. Michael Stein
Soundtrack | Stranger Things
Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated Michael Stein, along with his partner Kyle Dixon, are half of the Austin band S U R V I V E who scored the biggest pop culture phenomenon of 2016: the Netflix series "Stranger Things". The duo's dreamy, throwback score helped sell the nostalgic ode to when ...
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