Nick Glennie-Smith

The SCL mourns the passing of our dear friend and colleague Nick Glennie-Smith. The consummate English gentleman, his wry sense of humor and ebullient personality lifted everyone’s spirits whenever you were in his company.

Nick was a remarkably versatile musician whose career bridged rock, popular music and film. Before establishing himself in Hollywood, he worked as a keyboardist with artists including Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Tina Turner and Roger Waters.

After moving from the UK to the US, he became closely associated with Hans Zimmer and the Media Ventures/Remote Control school of film composers, contributing not only as a composer but as an arranger, orchestrator, keyboardist and conductor. His own scores included The Rock (with Hans and Harry Gregson-Williams), The Man in the Iron Mask, Home Alone 3 and Secretariat.

On a personal note, I had the pleasure of orchestrating his particularly moving score for We Were Soldiers where his combination of orchestra, chorus and ethnic instruments provided both martial power and profound lyricism, and also the sweeping music for the French historical theme park Puy du Fou, where his music is heard by hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Nick possessed the rare ability to make enormous musical forces sound both powerful and human. Whether writing for a Hollywood epic, playing keyboards in a rock band or standing before an orchestra, he was a musician’s musician—versatile, generous and deeply attuned to the emotional possibilities of sound. While his music was often written to accompany images, it never merely accompanied them. It gave those images their heartbeat, their scale and, at its best, their soul.

Nick, you leave behind so many fans of your music and your humanity. Rest in peace, assured that your music will live on and continue to inspire future generations of music creators.

Ashley Irwin
SCL President