Christopher Willis | |
|---|---|
 Christopher Willis in France in 2013 | |
| Born | 21 August 1978 Newcastle, Australia |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musicologist |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Spouse | Elyse Marchant Willis (m. 2012) |
Christopher Willis (born 21 August 1978) is an Australian-born British composer and musicologist.
He is the composer of the 2013 Disney television series Mickey Mouse , and co-composer (with Rupert Gregson-Williams) of the music to the HBO comedy series Veep . He has also written music for a number of film scores (credited with "additional music") with several other film composers including Carter Burwell, Harry Gregson-Williams, and Henry Jackman. His filmography includes The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012), Winnie the Pooh (2011), X-Men: First Class (2011), Shrek Forever After (2010), Grown Ups (2010), You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2008) and the television series Veep . [1] His score for The Death of Stalin (2017) was shortlisted along with 14 others for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. [2]
His concert music includes a piece written specially for The BBC Proms in 2010 entitled Mashup. [3] [4] The music is a written-out mashup of other pieces from the programme of the concert at which it was premiered. He has also composed music for educational purposes including Boom Town for chamber orchestra and young children, which was part of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. [5]
He is also a musicologist specializing in eighteenth-century music, especially Domenico Scarlatti, although he has written about other subjects including American minimalism. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and has written a number of scholarly articles, including a chapter to the book Domenico Scarlatti Adventures: Essays to Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of His Death, [6] and articles in the journals Early Music and Eighteenth-Century Music. [7]
| Year | Title | Director(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | The Death of Stalin | Armando Iannucci | — |
| 2019 | The Personal History of David Copperfield | — | |
| 2023 | Old Dads | Bill Burr | — |
| 2024 | Goodrich | Hallie Meyers-Shyer | — |
| Year | Title | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–2017 | Veep | HBO | Composed with Rupert Gregson-Williams |
| 2013–2019 | Mickey Mouse | Disney Channel | |
| 2016–2019 | The Lion Guard | Disney Junior | |
| 2016—present | Agatha Raisin | Sky One Acorn TV | Composed with Rupert Gregson-Williams |
| 2020–2023 | The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse | Disney+ | |
| 2021–2023 | Schmigadoon! | Apple TV+ | [8] |
| 2022 | Cat Burglar | Netflix | Children's and Family Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for an Animated Program |
| 2024—present | Ariel | Disney Jr. |
| Year | Title | Park | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway | Disney's Hollywood Studios/Disneyland | |
| 2020 | Vacation Fun - An Original Animated Short with Mickey & Minnie | Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
| 2022 | AquaMouse | Disney Wish | |
| 2023 | Mickey's Toontown | Disneyland | He composed "Our Homespun Melody" as well as his song "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" which was remixed and they are the land's background themes |
Domenico Alberti was an Italian singer, harpsichordist, and composer.
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas. He spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families.
Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi was an Italian-British composer, virtuoso pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer, who was mostly active in England.
Bernardo Pasquini was an Italian composer of operas, oratorios, cantatas and keyboard music. A renowned virtuoso keyboard player, he was one of the most important Italian composers for harpsichord between Girolamo Frescobaldi and Domenico Scarlatti, having also made substantial contributions to opera and oratorio.
The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a British period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after an 18th-century organisation of the same name. The musicians play on either original instruments from the period when the music was composed or modern copies of such instruments. They generally play Baroque, Classical, and sometimes Romantic music, though they have also played some new compositions for baroque orchestra in recent years.
Ralph Leonard Kirkpatrick was an American harpsichordist and musicologist, widely known for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas as well as for his performances and recordings.
Joby Talbot is a British composer. He has written for a wide variety of purposes, with a broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements and works for dance. He is known, to sometimes disparate audiences, for quite different works.
Colin Matthews, OBE is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, Britten, Dowland, Mahler, Purcell and Schubert. Other arrangements include orchestrations of all Debussy's 24 Préludes, both books of Debussy's Images, and two movements—Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches—from Ravel's Miroirs. Having received a doctorate from University of Sussex on the works of Mahler, from 1964–1975 Matthews worked with his brother David Matthews and musicologist Deryck Cooke on completing a performance version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.
Nikolai Demidenko is a Russian-born classical pianist.
Murray Jonathan Gold is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio. He is best known as the musical director and composer of the music for Doctor Who from its revival in 2005 until 2017. In 2023, he was announced to be returning to the series. Gold's other television work includes Queer as Folk, Last Tango in Halifax and Gentleman Jack. He has been nominated for five BAFTAs.
Alessandro Longo was an Italian composer and musicologist.
Rupert Gregson-Williams is a British composer, conductor, and record producer, best known for his film, video game, and television scores. His filmography includes Hotel Rwanda, for which he was awarded the European Film composer award, Hacksaw Ridge, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, Abominable, Back to the Outback, Made of Honor, The Holiday, The Legend of Tarzan, and numerous films by Happy Madison Productions, many of which star Adam Sandler. He composed music for the video game Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. His notable works in television include Veep, Catch-22, and The Crown.
Dustin O'Halloran is an American composer and pianist. Aside from releasing music as a recording artist, O'Halloran is a film and TV composer, as well as one half of ambient act A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
John Powell is an English composer best known for his film scores. He has been based in Los Angeles since 1997 and has composed the scores to over 70 feature films. He is best known for composing score for films, including Face/Off, the Bourne film series, the Happy Feet films, United 93, X-Men: The Last Stand, Evolution, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Migration, Drumline, Hancock, The Call of the Wild, Bolt, eight Blue Sky Studios films, and nine DreamWorks Animation films.
Domingo Antonio Velasco was an Italian painter. He was best known for his portrait of composer Domenico Scarlatti, which commemorates the musician's initiation into the Order of Santiago on 21 April 1738 by King John V of Portugal.
Giorgio Pestelli is an Italian musicologist.
Julian Livingstone Herbage was a British musicologist, broadcaster and member of the BBC music department. He is known for his scholarly edition of the score of Handel's Messiah (1935), for his role in planning the Proms from 1945 to 1961, and for editing and presenting the weekly BBC programme Music Magazine from 1944 to 1973.
Joel Leonard Sheveloff was an American musicologist, teacher and author.
The Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K. 141, is a solo keyboard sonata written for harpsichord by the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti. The sonata is characterised by fast repeated notes throughout, which makes it generally difficult to play. Because of its virtuosity, the piece is also described as a toccata. The piece contains many idioms characteristic of Scarlatti, such as hand crossing, a technique most closely associated with the composer. The piece is in D minor, which is Scarlatti's most used minor key. Scarlatti's sonata shows a Spanish influence, especially of Spanish dance music with guitar technique and syncopated rhythms.
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