John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. Over 70 years, he has created many of the most famous film scores in history. His music mixes romanticism, impressionism, and atonal music with detailed orchestration.
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini (born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, and flutist. He is often considered one of the greatest film composers in history. He won four Academy Awards, one Golden Globe Award, twenty Grammy Awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award given after his death in 1995.
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He worked in film and television music for nearly 50 years, creating scores for more than 200 movies and shows between 1954 and 2003. He was considered one of the most innovative and influential composers in film music.
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor most famous for creating music for films. As a conductor, he supported the work of composers who were not well known at the time. He is widely considered one of the greatest film composers in history.
Nino Rota
Giovanni “Nino” Rota Rinaldi (pronounced /ˈroʊtə/; Italian: [dʒoˈvanni ˈniːno ˈrɔːta riˈnaldi]; December 3, 1911 – April 10, 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. He is best known for the music he wrote for films, especially those directed by Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also created the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli’s Shakespeare movies and for the first two films in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather series.
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928, and died July 6, 2020) was an Italian musician who worked as a composer, conductor, trumpet player, and pianist. He created music in many different styles. Morricone wrote music for more than 400 movies and TV shows, as well as over 100 classical pieces.
Jörg Widmann
Jörg Widmann (German: [ˈjœʁk ˈviːtman]; born 19 June 1973) is a German composer, conductor, and clarinetist. In 2023, he was the third most performed living composer of contemporary music worldwide. He previously taught clarinet and composition at the University of Music Freiburg.
Toshio Hosokawa
Toshio Hosokawa (細川 俊夫, Hosokawa Toshio; born October 23, 1955) is a Japanese composer who writes modern classical music. He studied in Germany but later returned to Japan, where he developed a unique style influenced by traditional Japanese music and culture. He has written operas, including the oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, and created instrumental music.
Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin (Korean: 진은숙 [tɕin ɯn.suk]; born July 14, 1961) is a South Korean composer who creates contemporary classical music. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Chin taught herself to play the piano from a young age and later studied composition at Seoul National University.
James MacMillan
Sir James Loy MacMillan, CBE TOSD (born July 16, 1959), is a Scottish composer and conductor who writes classical music.