David Newman

With nearly 100 film scores to his credit, composer David Newman, one of a great family of Hollywood score writers, is one of American film's most significant musical figures. Newman's career began in the early '80s and was continuing uninterrupted into the mid-2020s. He is a versatile figure, with output ranging from scores to historical dramas to satires to children's films, including The Cat in the Hat (2003). Newman arranged the music for pianist Sebastian Knauer's 2024 release Hollywood and conducted the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on that album. Newman was born on March 11, 1954, in Los Angeles. His father was Alfred Newman, one of the giants of American cinematic composition from the 1940s through the '60s, and he was the brother to Thomas Newman and Maria Newman, both composers, and the cousin to rock star Randy Newman; there were also other composers in his family as well. He attended the University of Southern California, studying violin and conducting as well as composition, and in the late '70s and early '80s, he played violin on many soundtracks by John Williams. He credits those with shaping his own vision of film music. His first score was that for Frankenweenie, a short subject by Tim Burton (1984), and that was followed by the horror-comedy Critters in 1986. Most of his films in the late '80s and early '90s were what is known as B movies, but he had scores to several hits, including Heathers (1988). Newman's output is notable for its variety. He composed music for several children's films, including The Cat in the Hat and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009). He earned an Academy Award nomination for the animated film Anastasia (1997), which followed up on his own father's score for the original live version in 1956. However, he has been especially closely associated with comedies, including The Freshman (1990), Bowfinger (1999), and The Spy Next Door (2010). Outside of film, he served for several years as music director of the Sundance Institute, Robert Redford's organization devoted to fostering the work of independent artists, and he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic several times. He has conducted the RSO Vienna Orchestra in multiple annual "Hollywood in Vienna" concerts. The peak of his career was probably in the 2000s decade when his name often appeared on five or six films a year, but he remains active in the 2020s. In the 2024 release Hollywood by pianist Sebastian Knauer on the Deutsche Grammophon label, he wrote arrangements of Hollywood film scores, including Alfred Newman's and his own, and he conducted the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. ~ James Manheim, Rovi