Biography

Biography

Thomas Montgomery Newman (nickname: Tommy) was born in Los Angeles on October 20, 1955 and attended college for two years at the University of Southern California (USC), which included classes with professor David Raksin, and completed his academic work at Yale, studying with Jacob Druckman, Bruce MacCombie and Robert Moore. He graduated from Yale with a Master's in Music. He had always wanted to study piano and violin.

After graduation, he started playing around in bands and doing work for theatre. Broadway's Stephen Sondheim, who was deeply impressed with Newman's originality, championed one of his earliest works, the musical theatre piece Three Mean Fairy Tales, which received a workshop production courtesy of the Stuart Ostrow Foundation. For several years, he played keyboards for the rock band The Innocents (with Chris Kaye, Michael Hurt, Marten Ingle and Tony Kowalski) and the improvisational group Tokyo 77 (with Rick Cox, George Budd and Chaz Smith). Thomas Newman: "Because my uncle Lionel was head of music at Fox during my high school and college years, I went down there a lot and watched John Williams conduct some of his early Irwin Allen movies like The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. I think because of my uncle Lionel's relationship with John Williams, one of my first gigs in Hollywood was orchestrating one of the cues from Return of the Jedi (1983), when Darth Vader dies at the end. John's sketch was so complete that it was more of an exercise and a bone-toss, though it was a very nice bone-toss!" When Scott Rudin, a long time friend, asked Newman to help him with the music of a film he was producing, this turned out to be Reckless (1984), the first movie Thomas Newman would provide music for and his first step in the shadow of his father. "More movies came after that, but I never felt easy."

Thomas Newman's breakthrough-movie was the Madonna-vehicle Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), for which he composed an ethnic flavored score "based upon picking up certain kinds of rhythms and making them groove in the most interesting way possible". The music featured very prominently in the movie, which got Newman noticed. Newman remarks: "I was given a package of $50,000 for this movie and I spent $58,000. And I remember the film company called my agent and said, 'Well, Tom Newman owes us $8,000'".

Thomas Newman Although most of Newman's early scores were written for electronic instruments, he soon tried using accoustic instruments along with the synthesizers. The Lost Boys and especially Less Than Zero are two scores which illustrate perfectly how Newman tries to reconcile electronic against orchestral. "Both of them really interest me and I'd never choose one over the other," Newman says, "I hate the notion that electronics are a cheesy way of doing things and that orchestra is the only 'true' approach to scoring. But you can understand those critics, because electronics allow you to make easy choices. Anyone can do it. But while synthesizers are things you hide behind sounds, they can also be put in places you'd never expect. I've always wanted these boundaries to be amorphous."

The score that got him real recognition as a film composer was The Rapture, where he again combined an orchestra with electronics. It was the first opportunity he had to reference musical sizes by pairing a chamber-sized orchestra against smaller, ambient sounds and solo colors. He wanted to hear what sounded lush and what was spare. "I did the same thing with Men Don't Leave, seeing what happened if I put strings on top of electronics. I learned on those scores by trial and error".

Newman has collaborated with Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan, Cookie), Michael Tolkin (The Rapture, The Player), Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes, Red Corner), Gillian Armstrong (Little Women, Oscar and Lucinda), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) and Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman, Meet Joe Black) on several occasions. Also, he has composed music for TV-movies such as Those Secrets and Citizen Cohn and for famed TV-shows such as Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (the Christmas episode "Santa '85") and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (episodes "A Human Interest Story" and "The Creeper"). He composed the themes for acclaimed tv-shows such as Boston Public and Six Feet Under. In 1996, Newman created a unique seven-minute symphonic piece, "Reach Forth Our Hands (Cleveland Greeting, 1896)" for the city of Cleveland commemorating their bicentennial.

Thomas Newman receiving his 5th BMI Award for Phenomenon The first really big, mainstream Hollywood-movie with a Thomas Newman-score was probably Scent of a Woman (1992). Somewhere between this movie and the release of Threesome, Thomas Newman's experimental sound became a mainstream smash. His hauntingly beautiful scores for Little Women (1994) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994) earned Thomas Newman two Academy Award-nominations in the same year; another nomination (for Unstrung Heroes) followed a year later. Newman received his latest oscar nomination for American Beauty (1999), another landmark score in Newman's oeuvre, earning him much critical acclaim and his first Grammy Award. Thomas Newman has so far received two Grammy Award-nominations and one Grammy Award, five BMI Music Awards and one Golden Globe Award Nomination (also for American Beauty). His usual orchestrator is Thomas Pasatieri, his music editor Bill Bernstein.

Thomas Newman is the youngest son of Alfred Newman, the legendary composer, conductor and music director. His uncles were Lionel and Emil, also composers and conductors, Mark, one of the premiere film composer agents, and Robert, who was a vice-president at Goldwyn. Currently working as film composers are his brother David (Anastasia, Heathers, The Phantom, Operation Dumbo Drop) and his cousin Randy (Toy Story, The Natural, A Bug's Life, Meet the Parents, Awakenings), who is one of the best known singer-songwriters of our times as well. Thomas also has a sister, Maria, who is an acclaimed concert violinist and violist and is credited on a.o. The Rapture, The Player and Fried Green Tomatoes as concert-mistress. Thomas Newman lives in Los Angeles with his wife Ann Marie and their children.

Awards and nominations

BMI Film Music Award: Gung Ho.
Emmy Award Nomination: Against the Law.
BMI Film Music Award: Fried Green Tomatoes.
BMI Film Music Award: Scent of a Woman.
Academy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: Little Women.
BMI Film Music Award: Little Women.
Academy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: The Shawshank Redemption.
Grammy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: The Shawshank Redemption.
Academy Award nomination for Music - Original Musical or Comedy Score: Unstrung Heroes.
Grammy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: Unstrung Heroes.
BMI Film Music Award: Phenomenon.
Saturn Award nomination for Best Music: Meet Joe Black.
AFI Award for Best Original Music Score: Oscar and Lucinda.
BMI Film Music Award: The Horse Whisperer.
Saturn Award nomination for Best Music: The Green Mile.
Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score: American Beauty.
Academy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: American Beauty.
BAFTA Award for Achievement in Film Music: American Beauty.
Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album: American Beauty.
Emmy Award for: Six Feet Under.
Academy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: Road to Perdition.
Academy Award nomination for Music - Original Score: Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Contact

If you want to contact Mr. Newman, we suggest you write a letter to the following address:

Thomas Newman
c/o Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency
4111 W. Alameda Avenue
Suite 509
Burbank, CA 91505
USA