FilmMusicSite.com: Composer Talk

Two-time Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy-winning composer Alexandre Desplat is one of the most respected film composers in the world today. Desplat first captivated American audiences with his score for The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Birth. He has since scored a range of acclaimed films, twelve of which have been Oscar-nominated: The Queen, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The Imitation Game, The King’s Speech, Argo, Philomena, The Painted Veil for which he received a Golden Globe, and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs, and The Grand Budapest Hotel which won the 2015 Oscar for Best Original Score. Desplat’s thematic score to Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Original Score. Alexandre joined forces again with director Guillermo del Toro for the film Frankenstein. Next to that he wrote recently the music for Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Phoenician Scheme and many more.

In this episode of Composer Talk Alexandre Desplat talks about working with Guillermo del Toro on the film Frankstein. How it is to be nominated again for an Oscar. We zoom in on his score for Jurassic World: Rebirth and The Phoenician Scheme.

Enjoy listening to this new Composer Talk!

Danny Elfman is an Oscar nominated composer who has written more than 100 film scores and is widely celebrated for his four-decade collaboration with director Tim Burton on films including Batman, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in Wonderland. Next to that he also wrote music for films such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Good Will Hunting, Milk, and the Men in Black franchise, along with iconic television themes for The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, and Wednesday. Recently he has worked on Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, Sam Raimi’s Send Help, and Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale.

In this episode of Composer Talk composer Danny Elfman talks about his latest films Dracula: A Love Tale, Send Help and Dead Man’s Wire. We take a look back at the beginning of his career as a composer and he shares some details about a project he’s working on with John Powell and Marco Beltrami.

Enjoy listening to this great new episode of Composer Talk! 

Photo Credit: Ethan Benavidez

Nicholas Pike is an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood composer who has scored films ranging from the family-oriented Captain Ron, Return to Me and Virginia’s Run to darker films like Fear Dot Com, The Shining mini-series and The I Inside. He has scored large scale music videos like Michael Jackson’s Ghost, Rock My World and Will Smith’s Wild, Wild West. He won in 2013 the  Outstanding Music and Sound Emmy for the HBO documentary In Tahrir Square. He wrote music for the Apple TV+ reboot of Amazing Stories for Steven Spielberg and Bonnie Hunt’s Amber Brown for the Apple streaming service, as well as the documentaries 100 Years about Native American activist Elouise Cobell and Fiddlin’ about the roots of Bluegrass music. His current releases include Viva Verdi!, which features his composition, the OSCAR® Nominated Best Song Sweet Dreams of Joy, performed by Grammy-winning soprano Ana Maria Martinez and the romantic comedy Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off, written and directed by Liz Guest.
In this new episode of Composer Talk composer Nicholas Pike talks about how he got into film scoring and we focus on his song Sweet Dreams of Joy for which he is nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Song. He wrote this and the score for the documentary Viva Verdi!
Check out this great conversation with Nicholas Pike in this new episode of Composer Talk!

Blair Mowat is a composer from Scotland, Edinburgh who writes music for television and film. He studied at Durham university and Bristol University. He is a BAFTA nominated, award-winning composer with over 17-years’ experience. His work includes Class, an acclaimed 8-part Doctor Who spin-off series on BBC One, ITV’s international hit show McDonald & Dodds and SKY’s The Amazing Mr. Blunden. He composed the score to Russell T Davies’s drama Nolly, starring Helena Bonham Carter earning him a TV BAFTA nomination for the score in 2024 and winning the prestigious Camille Award for ‘Best TV Score’ across Europe. Recent projects include the revelatory documentary The Age of Disclosure, the gripping drama series The Guest,
and After the Flood, for which the second season 2 is about to air.

In this new episode of Composer Talk Blair Mowat talks about his music for the documentary The Age of Disclosure which is a hit in rental on Amazon. Next to that we deep dive into his music for the tv series The Guest.

Enjoy listening to this new episode of Composer Talk!

Maurizio Malagnini is an in Italia born composer. He developed a deep passion for music through opera particularly the lyrical traditions of Rossini and Puccini and the work of legendary film composers Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota. After a decade of study at the Italian conservatoire, he moved to the UK in 2006 to attend the Royal College of Music, graduating with a Master’s Distinction in Composition for Screen. He first gained widespread acclaim with his score for
The Paradise, earning an EMMY® Award nomination. His recent projects also include Coppelia, an ambitious animation and live-action ballet adaptation that received two IFMCA Awards, including the prestigious Film Score of the Year. Malagnini is the composer of Call the Midwife
A long running series which can be seen on BBC and PBS. On Christmas Day BBC and PBS aired a Christmas Special of Call the Midwife.

In this first edition of Composer Talk for 2026 Maurizio Malagnini talks about his passion for music. We talk in-depth about his score for Coppelia and how it is to score the BBC hitseries Call the Midwife.

Enjoy this new edition of Composer Talk!