JAMES NEWTON HOWARD is one of the film industry’s most versatile and honored composers, with a career spanning over thirty years and encompassing more than 140 film and television projects. He is a 9-time Oscar nominee, and Emmy and Grammy winner. Howard has also been honored with ASCAP’s prestigious Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement and the BMI ICON Award.
As a record producer, arranger, and songwriter, he has collaborated with some of pop’s biggest names including Elton John; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Barbra Streisand; Earth, Wind and Fire; Bob Seger; Rod Stewart; Toto; Glenn Frey; Diana Ross; Carly Simon; Olivia Newton-John; Randy Newman; Rickie Lee Jones; and Chaka Khan.
In 1985, he was offered his first film, Head Office, and he quickly knew he had found his calling. He has since created the scores for a broad range of films, recently including Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Jungle Cruise, News of the World, Raya and the Last Dragon, A Hidden Life, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Red Sparrow, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Detroit, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, all four installments of The Hunger Games franchise, Concussion, Nightcrawler and Maleficent. His long list of credits also include Snow White and the Huntsman, The Bourne Legacy, Salt, Water For Elephants, Batman Begins, Collateral, Snow Falling on Cedars, Outbreak, The Village, Hidalgo, Peter Pan, Wyatt Earp, Lady in the Water, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Freedomland, Dinosaur, Treasure Planet, Signs, Falling Down, Primal Fear, Glengarry Glen Ross, Waterworld, The Devil’s Advocate, Dave, and Pretty Woman among many others. In 2017, Howard completed his first live concert tour, 3 Decades of Music for Hollywood, visiting 15 European cities, with the premiere being held at Royal Albert Hall.
In addition to his contributions to film and television music, Howard has written a number of concert works. He has written two pieces for the Pacific Symphony: I Would Plant a Tree, which debuted in 2009; and his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which premiered in 2015, featuring renowned violinist James Ehnes. He was also commissioned to write one of the encores for Hilary Hahn’s collection, 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores entitled “133 . . . At Least.” His chamber work entitled “they have just arrived at this new level” was commissioned and premiered in 2018 by the Seattle Chamber Music Society, of which James Ehnes is principal violinist and artistic director. Most recently, his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was premiered with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
The Sony Classical album, Night after Night: Music from the movies of M. Night Shyamalan, was released in Fall 2023. It features soloists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Hilary Hahn and Maya Beiser, and is comprised of re-arranged parts and newly created suites from Howard’s haunting scores that became part of the identify of eight of Shyamalan’s eerie, mind-bending thrillers. His other recent and upcoming projects include Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See limited series, for which he was nominated for an Emmy award, David Yates’ Pain Hustlers, the prequel to The Hunger Games franchise: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Paul Greengrass’s The Lost Bus.