Thomas Newman

Thomas Newman was honored as an Ambassador of the Society of Composers & Lyricists on December 14th, 2016 at the annual SCL Holiday Dinner in Los Angeles.

Thomas Newman is widely acclaimed as one of today’s most prominent composers for film. He has composed music for more than 80 motion pictures and television series, and has earned 14 Academy Award® nominations, one Primetime Emmy Award® and six Grammys®, and was recently nominated for a Golden Globe® for his score for 1917. 

A turning point in Newman’s career took place while he was working as a musical assistant on the 1984 film Reckless, for which he soon was promoted to the position of composer. And so, at the age of 27, Newman successfully composed his first film score. Since then, he has contributed distinctive and evocative scores to many acclaimed films, including The Lost Boys, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Shawshank Redemption, Little Women, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Horse Whisperer, Meet Joe Black, American Beauty, The Green Mile, Erin Brockovich, Road to Perdition, Finding Nemo, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Good German, WALL-E, The Help, The Iron Lady, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Skyfall, Spectre, Tolkien, and Bridge of Spies. Newman also composed the music for the miniseries Angels in America. He also received a Primetime Emmy Award® for his title theme for Six Feet Under.

In addition to his work in film and television, Newman has composed several works for the concert stage, including the symphonic work Reach Forth Our Hands,commissioned in 1996 by the Cleveland Orchestra to commemorate their city’s bicentennial, as well as At Ward’s Ferry, and Length 180 ft., a concerto for double bass and orchestra commissioned in 2001 by the Pittsburgh Symphony. His latest concert piece was a chamber work entitled It Got Dark, commissioned by the acclaimed Kronos Quartet in 2009. As part of a separate commission by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the work was expanded and adapted for the symphony orchestra and string quartet, and premiered at Walt Disney Concert Hall in December 2009. In October 2014, Newman and musician Rick Cox released 35 Whirlpools Below Sound, an evocative, contemporary collection of avant-garde electronic soundscapes, which the two collaborators developed over a period of 25 years and which constitutes a fascinating departure from Newman’s work in film music.