Music Soc Magazine Summer Issue | Page 8

BLUE ROOM TALKS

JOHN POWELL

Germaine Franco

John Powell was catapulted into the realm of A-list composers by displaying an entirely original voice with his oft-referenced scores to the Matt Damon/”Bourne” film trilogy.  He has become the go-to writer for family animated films, scoring such hits as “Shrek,” “Chicken

Run,” “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” “Bolt,” “Rio,” “Happy Feet,” “Happy Feet 2,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” and “Ice Age: Continental Drift.”

His pulsating action music has provided the fuel for “Hancock,” “Green Zone,” “Stop Loss,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “The Italian Job.” Powell’s music has also sweetened the romance of “Two Weeks Notice” and “P.S. I Love You,” empowered “X-Men: The Last Stand,” lent tenderness to “I Am Sam” and gripping drama to “United 93.”

 Powell’s infectious score for “How to Train Your Dragon” earned him his first Academy Award nomination.  He received BAFTA nominations for “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Happy Feet” and “Shrek” and was nominated for a Grammy in 2008 for his work on “Happy Feet.  Powell is the recipient of four Ivor Novello Awards for Best Original Film Score from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, for “Shrek,” “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” and “How To Train Your Dragon.” This year, he completed the score to “RIO 2” for Fox and “How to Train Your Dragon 2” for Dreamworks Animation.

Powell will premiere a new Oratorio to commemorate WWI with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in January of 2015.

A native of London, Powell

was an accomplished

violinist as a child, wrote

music for commercials out

of school, and assisted

composer Patrick Doyle in

the early 1990s. He moved

to the U.S. in 1997 he

scored the film Face-Off

and co-wrote the score for

“Antz,”. Powell quickly

became one of the most

desirable, versatile, and

exciting composers in town.

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John Powell will be giving our first talk as a Video Conference 14th May! Watch your emails!! Limited Capacity