Howard Shore

Regarded as film music royalty, Canadian Howard Shore has composed the music for over 50 high profile movies, most famously including 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Philadelphia', 'Gangs of New York', 'The Aviator' and the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, winning various Grammys, Golden Globes and other awards in the process.

He grew up in a Toronto neighbourhood where David Cronenberg also lived, a film director with whom he was to collaborate on more than 15 movies. In fact it was Cronenberg who effectively gave him his big break into films, asking him to compose the music for his 1978 film 'The Brood'.

Shore started writing music at an early age, saying he wrote every single day. He studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and became involved with the jazz-influenced pop group Lighthouse, recording several albums with them between 1969 and 1972. Aside from music for the band, he experimented with different styles. It led him to become one of the creators and musical director of a brand new American comedy/satirical series called 'Saturday Night Live', on which he worked for five years as its irreverence caught people's imaginations and became a huge success.

After 'The Brood' he collaborated with different directors on a series of movies including 'Scanners', 'After Hours', 'The Fly', 'Dead Ringers', 'The Silence of the Lambs', 'Naked Lunch', 'Prelude to a Kiss', 'Single White Female', 'Mrs Doubtfire', 'Philadelphia' and 'High Fidelity', all leading up to his crowning glory, working with Peter Jackson on the epic 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, followed by 'The Hobbit'. It led to him touring the world conducting different orchestras performing his scores. He also wrote an opera, 'The Fly', which premiered in Paris in 2008 and was commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival to write 'Ruin & Memory', a concerto for renowned pianist Lang Lang, which was performed by the China Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010. He followed it with a second concerto 'Mythic Gardens' in 2012.