20 Facts About Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal was born on May 2,1954 and is an American composer of contemporary classical music and film and theatrical scores.

Elliot Goldenthal won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2002 for his score to the motion picture Frida, directed by his longtime partner Julie Taymor.

Elliot Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works.

Elliot Goldenthal 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.

Elliot Goldenthal then studied music full-time at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with composer John Corigliano, to earn his Bachelor of Music degree and Master of Music degree in musical composition.

Elliot Goldenthal has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film.

Elliot Goldenthal's work includes music for films such as Pet Sematary, 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".

In 2006, Elliot Goldenthal completed his original three-act opera with Taymor entitled Grendel an adaptation of the John Gardner novel of the same name which told the story of Beowulf from the monster Grendel's point of view.

In 2008 Elliot Goldenthal reunited with Michael Mann to score 1930s gangster movie Public Enemies and in 2009 he scored another Julie Taymor Shakespeare adaptation, The Tempest.

Elliot Goldenthal cites Japanese composer Toru 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.

Elliot Goldenthal has collaborated four times with Irish director Neil Jordan, including on his films Interview with the Vampire and In Dreams.

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.

Elliot Goldenthal is known for his experimentation, nuances and willingness to try unconventional techniques.

Elliot Goldenthal has scored films in almost every genre from horror to action to Shakespeare adaptations.

Elliot Goldenthal has not yet scored comedy, but he has composed comedic motifs for several films such as Demolition Man and the Batman series.

Elliot Goldenthal is widely appreciated for his musical abilities and distinctive style, although some find his work to be too experimental or inaccessible.

Elliot Goldenthal has said that he doesn't "hear" atonal and tonal, rather, "I either hear melody or I hear sonority".

Elliot Goldenthal keeps coming up with surprising combinations of sounds.

Once, when studying trumpet, Elliot Goldenthal had asked him to "buzz into the wrong end of the mouthpiece and sing into it as well".

Elliot Goldenthal 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.