Personal quote As often the most original composers are more then ever the big extraordinary talents. And besides some respected names we find Thomas Newman. Being so inspirational and dramatic, it are the massive highlights that build his career into the creative pawn he is today. And several people simply adore the upbeat and playful style he inserts in almost every score. He is indeed a composer that surprises you and a person that seeks that unexpected sound, to create a rhythm or a theme that sooths. Lately the style is changed from big orchestral to small experimental. Making him not only special inside the movie's context but interesting and diverse on soundtrack as well. But when Thomas scores big, then the score goes big with fan raise, making him a very sought after fan composer. Biography Thomas Newman was born in LA on October 20, 1955. He attended college at the University of Southern California and completed his academic studies at Yale, graduating with a Master's in Music. He started working for bands and in theatres. His first movie was Reckless and Thomas Newman started his career in movie along with his brother David, his uncle Randy and he stepped in the lines his father Alfred traveled certain years ago. His first breakthrough movie and including score was Desperately Seeking Susan. Thomas Newman started to score more features and used all kinds of approaches, composing with electronics and often peculiar named instruments . And slowly his unique style started to form. Also his name started to spread and Thomas was beginning to score more and bigger features. Movie scores like The Rapture and Men Don't Leave put him on the composer list for sure. This all resulted in a career with various highlights including Fried Green Tomatoes, Scent of a Woman, The Shawshank Redemption, Little Women, Unstrung Heroes, Oscar and Lucinda, The Horse Whisperer and Meet Joe Black. He was awarded with four nominations and several BMI Film Music Awards. After that many more successful scores came, American Beauty for one that both gathered critical success at the Oscars and received several nominations. Pay it Forward, Erin Brockovich and In the Bedroom followed Newman's recent technique further, minimalist quirky scores that plucked American Beauty's chosen path, but aren't highly effective in cheering the crowd. Luckily Road to Perdition and the Oscar nominated Finding Nemo were returning fans to the orchestral side of Newman, which Finding Nemo being the highly successful film and score. The powerful score for the series Angels in America is nonetheless the crown jewel of Thomas Newman, and should it be made for a film, this score would receive an Oscar in an instant. Lemony Snickets's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Cinderella Man, Jarhead, Little Children, The Good German and Nothing is Private prove Newman's top status as composer today.
(on Desperately Seeking Susan) June, 1991 I
worked on it for an incredibly long time because he was so demanding, and he asked me to
write a number of themes. So when he finally liked one of them, I felt cheated! I didn't
even have time to like it myself. November, 1994 The music could have gone in any number of directions, and sometimes that makes filmmakers uncomfortable. You're not quite there with the score, and they don't want to respond until you're ready to play something. (on The Shawshank Redemption) November, 1994 I don't
want to be the guy telling the audience what's going on in the movie. It embarrasses me,
because that's not my place as a composer. I just want to enhance the movie's emotions as
much as I can. So the idea of being "over the top" isn't natural to my
character. Yet I've had to do it from time to time, then ask myself why the score ended so
big. 
 
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