Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal studied at Andries Hudde Junior High School, John Dewey High School and Manhattan School of Music. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Aaron Copland and John Corigliano are recorded as an influence. Distinctions recorded are Academy Award for Best Original Score, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theatre.

• Name — Elliot Goldenthal • Born — 2 May 1954 • Birthplace — Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. • Genre — * Contemporary classical • theatre music • film score • avant-garde • Occupation — * Composer • songwriter • Years Active — 1978–present • Associated Acts — Julie Taymor • Website — https: www.elliotgoldenthal.com/

Goldenthal was born on May 2, 1954, the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was influenced from an early age by music from all cultures and genres. Goldenthal's maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Poland. Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn where, at the age of 14, he had his very first ballet Variations on Early Glimpses performed; he continued to display his eclectic musical range, performing with rock bands in the seventies. He then studied music full-time at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with composer John Corigliano (whom he greatly admired), to earn his Bachelor of Music degree (1977) and Master of Music degree (1979) in musical composition.

Goldenthal has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. His film highlights include scores for films such as Pet Sematary, Titus, A Time to Kill, Interview with the Vampire, Alien 3, Michael Collins, Batman Forever, Heat and the Academy Award-winning score for Julie Taymor's Frida, a movie in which Goldenthal had a small acting part as a "Newsreel Reporter". A leading voice in contemporary theater music, Goldenthal has collaborated extensively with Julie Taymor and Andre Șerban on productions ranging from Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass (which earned him a Tony Award nomination, Obie Award, and multiple Drama Desk nominations) to The Green Bird, M. Butterfly, and Grounded. His contributions to American stage have been recognized with the Stephen Sondheim award and the Edinburgh Festival Critics Choice Award. Goldenthal has established a presence as a composer of classical music through symphonic, vocal, chamber, and operatic works. Highlights include Fire Water Paper, A Vietnam Oratorio, recorded for Sony Classical with Yo-Yo Ma; the Symphony in G-sharp Minor (2014), premiered by the Pacific Symphony under Carl St. Clair, and Symphony No. 3, "Sadowska Poems" (2021), inspired by the writing of Polish poet Barbara Sadowska. His chamber music includes the acclaimed String Quartet No. 1, "The Stone Cutters" (2013), while his opera Grendel, created with director Julie Taymor premiered at the Los Angeles Opera and was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Through these works, Goldenthal has emerged as a distinctive contemporary composer whose concert music combines symphony ambition with dramatic intensity. His most significant work for dance is Othello (1997), a full length, three-act ballet commissioned by American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet and choreographed by Lar Lubovitch. Premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House, the production became a staple of the American Ballet Theatre repertory and was subsequently performed internationally, including engagements by the San Francisco Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Widely praised for dramatic power and richly orchestrated score, Othello later served as the basis for his Symphony No. 2, "Othello Symphony." • Illustration — Goldenthal in concert in 2014 Goldenthal cites Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu as an influence and someone he styles his own career on; Goldenthal has said that the lines between traditional concert music and orchestral film score have become more blurred which is the way he thinks it should be.

He lives in New York City "happily unmarried", as he once put it, with his partner Julie Taymor, whom he met in 1980 through a mutual acquaintance, who told him, "I know a person whose work is just as grotesque as yours". They have an office/apartment where they both live and work.

Elliot Goldenthal has been called the "thinking man's composer" by film-music collectors and a generally more cerebral choice for film makers and lovers of film music. He is known for his experimentation, nuances and willingness to try unconventional techniques. He has scored films in almost every genre from horror to action to Shakespeare adaptations. He has not yet scored comedy, but he has composed comedic motifs for several films such as Demolition Man and the Batman series. His eclectic output has gained him a great deal of respect in the music and film communities and with fans. He is widely appreciated for his musical abilities and distinctive style, although some find his work to be too experimental or inaccessible. His action music is brutal and atonal. Sometimes, in underscore, he uses very fast French horn passages with bending tones and whining. Goldenthal has said that he doesn't "hear" atonal and tonal, rather, "I either hear melody or I hear sonority". Goldenthal often works with a team he assembled after the soundtrack for Drugstore Cowboy: Teese Gohl as supervising producer, Robert Elhai as orchestrator, Joel Iwataki and Steve McLaughlin as sound engineers and Richard Martinez as electronic music producer. According to Martinez, "a lot of composers want to focus on writing their music, and that's what [his] team allows Elliot to do." At the website filmscoremonthly.com, a former classmate of Goldenthal's commented on an article on the Sphere score from 1998 which stated that when he and Elliot were both studying at the Manhattan School of Music in the '70s, Elliot was already experimenting with unusual techniques. Once, when studying trumpet, Elliot had asked him to "buzz into the wrong end of the mouthpiece and sing into it as well". He thought he was crazy but, looking back after a decade or so of Goldenthal's film and concert music, he "was just way ahead of the rest of us," he said.

• Year — Title — Director(s) — Network(s) — Notes • 1989 — Criminal Justice — Andy Wolk — Home Box Office — Television film • 1991 — Grand Isle — Mary Lambert — Turner Network Television • 1992 — Behind the Scenes — Ellen Hovde Muffie Meyer — Public Broadcasting Service — 10-episode miniseries. • Fool's Fire — Julie Taymor — Television film • 1994 — Roswell — Jeremy Kagan — Showtime • 1996 — The West — Stephen Ives — Public Broadcasting Service — Episode: "The Geography of Hope" • 2000 — Por un beso — Alfredo Gurrola — Televisa — Episode: "Pilot" • 2003 — Great Performances: Dance in America — Julie Taymor — Public Broadcasting Service — Episode: "Lar Lubovitch's 'Othello'"

• Year — Title — Notes • 1974 — Three Pieces for Piano • 1977 — Requiem Mass — Un-premiered • 1979 — Sonata for Double Bass and Piano — Recorded by Tim Cobb & Stephen Gosling • Los Heraldos Negros – a song cycle for singer and percussion — Un-premiered • Brass Quintet No. 1 • Jabberwocky for Woodwind Quartet — Set to the poem by Lewis Carroll Also arranged for two bassoons and winds • 1980 — Brass Quintet No. 2 — Recorded by the Extension ensemble • 1988 — Pastime Variations – A Memorial for Ebbets Field • 1990 — Shadow Play Scherzo for Orchestra • 1996 — Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio — Recorded by Pacific Symphony Orchestra, featuring Yo Yo Ma • 2013 — String Quartet No. 1 "The Stone Cutters" — Premiered by the FLUX Quartet in 2015 • Adagietto Doloroso for orchestra — Premiered at the Ghent Film Music Festival conducted by Dirk Brossé • 2014 — Symphony in G♯ Minor • Grand Gothic Suite • 2015 — Lyric Suite: The Floods of Avon for String Orchestra and Piano • 2017 — Waltz & Agitato "Pravda" for Orchestra • For Trumpet & Strings (First Movement of "Trumpet Concerto") — Conducted by Dirk Brossé with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth • 2018 — Trumpet Concerto — Conducted by Dirk Brossé with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth • 2019 — OCTOBER LIGHT: Adagio for Orchestra — Premiered with Pacific Symphony under Carl. St. by Clair December 2019 • 2021 — SYMPHONY NO.3 for Soprano and Orchestra Poems by Barbara Sadowska — Premiered by soprano Adriana Ferfecka, the Beethoven Academy Orchestra and conductor Monika Stefaniak at the Krakow Filharmonia, 15 December 2021

• Year — Title — Type — Notes • 1984 — The King Stag — Play • 1985 — Liberty's Taken — Musical — Composed with David Suehsdorf and Julie Taymor • 1986 — The Transposed Heads — Adapted by Sidney Goldfarb and Julie Taymor • 1988 — The Serpent Woman — Play • Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass — Musical — Reworked and recorded in 1996 • 1997 — Othello — Ballet — Choreography by Lar Lubovitch • 1999 — The Green Bird — Musical • 2006 — Grendel — Opera — Libretto by Julie Taymor & J. D. McClatchy • 2013 — A Midsummer Night's Dream — Play — Production at the Polansky Theater • 2015 — Grounded — Premiered at The Public Theater • 2017 — M. Butterfly

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2017 — Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary — Himself — Documentary film

Elliot Goldenthal is recorded with the occupation film score composer. Classed in the genre opera. Recorded as having studied at Andries Hudde Junior High School, John Dewey High School and Manhattan School of Music.