Honours
Armstrong was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for his contribution to music. [5] [6]
Craig Armstrong | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 April 1959 |
| Origin | Shettleston, Glasgow, Scotland [1] [2] |
| Genres | classical Contemporary classical Electronic Alternative rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Website | www |
Craig Armstrong, OBE (born 29 April 1959) [3] is a Scottish composer of modern orchestral music, electronica and film scores. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1981, and has since written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta.
Armstrong's score for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet earned him a BAFTA for Achievement in Film Music and an Ivor Novello. He would collaborate with Luhrmann again on his next two films, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby . His score for the former earned him the 2001 American Film Institute's composer of the Year award, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and a BAFTA. Armstrong was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Original Score in 2004 for the biopic Ray . His other feature film scoring credits include Love Actually , Oliver Stone's World Trade Center , Elizabeth: The Golden Age and The Incredible Hulk .
Armstrong was born in Shettleston, Glasgow, Scotland [1] [2]
He studied musical composition, violin and piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1977 to 1981, where his teachers included Cornelius Cardew and Malcolm MacDonald [2] He was awarded the Charles Lucas prize and the Harvey Lohr scholarship for composition, the FTCL Fellowship in composition, and also won the GLAA Young Jazz Musician of the Year in 1982. Upon completing his studies, Armstrong served as music and dance specialist at the Strathclyde Regional Council in 1984. In 1985 Armstrong toured with Midge Ure on his Gift World Tour, and with Ultravox on their european U-Vox Tour winter 1986. Between 1994–2002 he was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company to write music for The Broken Heart and The Tempest , both directed by Michael Boyd.
He sees no difference in credibility between popular and classical forms [4] and this respect for the pop genre was cemented in 1994 with a one-off collaboration with the Bristol band Massive Attack on their album Protection, [2] after which the band formed their Melankolic vanity record label releasing his first two solo albums.
In 2001, Armstrong received BAFTA, Golden Globe, and American Film Institute Award, as well as World Soundtrack Award and a Golden Satellite Award for Moulin Rouge! . In 2002 he wrote the meditative piece Visconti, commissioned by Barbican Centre Elektronika festival for the London Sinfonietta. In 2004 Armstrong collaborated with visual artists Dalziel + Scullion on One Minute to celebrate the opening of Perth's Horsecross Hall. In 2005 he received a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack album for the film Ray, directed by Taylor Hackford. In 2008 his first classical release, Memory Takes My Hand, featuring a violin concerto for Clio Gould, was released on EMI Classics. Armstrong has had many collaborations including recording and performing the album Dolls with the Berlin laptop artist AGF and Vladislav Delay. He has worked with a wide variety of more well-known musical artists, including U2, Tina Turner, Madonna, Texas, and Luciano Pavarotti. [2]
Armstrong has written several classical commissions for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Hebrides Ensemble and the Scottish Ensemble. In 2006, Armstrong collaborated with the visual artists Dalziel + Scullion for the reopening of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow with a joint exhibition called Once. In 2007 Armstrong's first opera was premiered as part of the Scottish Opera, titled '5:15 – Opera's made in Scotland', a 15min opera with a libretto by Ian Rankin.
Armstrong was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for his contribution to music. [5] [6]
Armstrong has released two solo records on Massive Attack's label Melankolic, followed by Piano Works on Sanctuary in 2004 and Film Works on Universal in 2005. In 2007 Armstrong recorded his first classical record, "Memory Takes My Hand", for EMI Classics with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was released in 2008 and includes a violin concerto "Immer" for Clio Gould.
Rosebud was released from a new co written and co produced project of Craig Armstrong and Scott Fraser – Winona. September 2009: "Without You (Deal Soul Brothers Remix)" – Format: 12" Vinyl single
His score to William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (with Baz Luhrmann) earned him a BAFTA for Achievement in Film Music and an Ivor Novello. [2] Armstrong's score for Baz Luhrmann's groundbreaking musical Moulin Rouge! earned him AFI's Composer of the Year award, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score of the Year and a BAFTA for Achievement in Film Music. His score for Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American garnered him the Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score. His other feature film scoring credits include the Oliver Stone drama World Trade Center , the Oscar-winning bio-pic Ray for which Armstrong was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Original Score and the worldwide ensemble comedy smash Love Actually . His scores can also be heard in The Magdalene Sisters , Kiss of the Dragon , The Bone Collector , The Clearing , Best Laid Plans , Orphans , Elizabeth: The Golden Age and The Incredible Hulk .
One of the most popular tracks composed by Armstrong is "Escape" from Plunkett & Macleane . [2] [7] The composition was used in the pilot of the 2000 science fiction series Dark Angel', as well as having been used in various film trailers and sports broadcasts due to the emotional buildup caused by its rising crescendo and choir.
It was used in the trailer for the BBC's Euro 2012 coverage (the BBC had already used 'Balcony Scene' from the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack for their Euro 2004 trailer), and has often been used in the BBC's Top Gear series at the climax of the season finale "epic challenges". Armstrong lists the songs which Top Gear has used on his web site. [8] "Escape" has been used in a number of action film trailers, including Spider-Man 2 and Daredevil . [9]
"Escape" has also been used as entrance music by various sports teams, including the professional wrestling stable Team Vision, Premier League football team Aston Villa when playing at their home ground Villa Park, as well as fellow Premier League team Wigan Athletic when at the DW Stadium. It has also been used as entrance music for the England rugby union team at Twickenham stadium, Premiership rugby union team Leeds Carnegie before home games, and Kent County Cricket Club in Twenty20 matches.
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It follows a young English poet, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine. The film uses the musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris and is the final part of Luhrmann's "Red Curtain Trilogy", following Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Romeo + Juliet (1996). A co-production of Australia and the United States, it features an ensemble cast starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, with John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, Jacek Koman and Caroline O'Connor featured in supporting roles.
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is regarded by some as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design, and musical components of all his work. He is the most commercially successful Australian director, with four of his films in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films of all time.
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 romantic crime film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It is a modernized adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, albeit still utilizing Shakespearean English. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles of two teenagers who fall in love, despite their being members of feuding families. Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora also star in supporting roles. It is the third major film version of the play, following adaptations by George Cukor in 1936 and by Franco Zeffirelli in 1968.
The Red Curtain Trilogy is a DVD boxed set, released in 2002, of the first three films directed by Baz Luhrmann:
Nellee Hooper is a British record producer, remixer and songwriter known for his work with many major recording artists beginning in the late 1980s. He also debuted as a motion picture music composer with Scottish composer Craig Armstrong and Marius De Vries for the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet in 1996.
Maurice Seezer is an Irish songwriter, musician, and film music composer. Born in 1960, he grew up in the Dublin suburb of Coolock, in a musical family.
The 1st World Soundtrack Awards were given on 18 October 2001 in Ghent, Belgium.
Matt Bloom is an Emmy winning and BAFTA-nominated British director of television, commercials and short films, and a graduate of the International Film School Wales.
Catherine Martin is an Australian costume designer, production designer and set designer. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including four Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards, and a Tony Award. Martin is best known for frequent collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, including Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008), The Great Gatsby (2013), and Elvis (2022).
No. 5 the Film (2004) is a 180-second short film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Rodrigo Santoro. Karl Lagerfeld designed the costumes; he also briefly appears in the film. It is part of a new breed of advertising crossover films known as branded content. It had a budget of US$33 million, financed exclusively by Chanel. Visually captivating, the film is an extended television commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume. The film was initially screened in many North American cinemas during the "Coming Attractions" section preceding the main feature. During the 2006 Christmas season, an edited 30-second TV spot was shown on primetime on many networks in Canada and the United States. Kidman was paid $3 million for her role in the advertisement.
Nigel John Hess is a British composer, best known for his television, theatre and film soundtracks, including the theme tunes to Campion, Maigret, Wycliffe, Dangerfield, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Badger and Ladies in Lavender.
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to the 1996 film of the same name. The soundtrack contained two separate releases: the first containing popular music from the film and the second containing the score to the film composed by Nellee Hooper, Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries.
Alex Heffes is a British film composer. His film scores include those for the BAFTA-winning Touching the Void, and Oscar-winning movies One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland, and Inside Job. Heffes was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for his work on Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Jill Elizabeth Bilcock is an Australian film editor, a member of the Australian Screen Editors (ASE) guild, as well as the American Cinema Editors (ACE) society, and has edited films such as Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and Road to Perdition. She occasionally gives seminars at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, of which she is an alumna.
Abel Korzeniowski is a Polish composer of film and theatre scores.
Marius de Vries is an English music producer and composer. He has won a Grammy Award from four nominations, two BAFTA Awards, and an Ivor Novello Award.
Geoff Foster is an English recording and mix engineer, best known for his work on numerous film scores.
The soundtrack for the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet was composed and conducted by Nino Rota. It was originally released as a vinyl record, containing nine entries, most notably the song "What Is a Youth", composed by Nino Rota, written by Eugene Walter and performed by Glen Weston. The music score won a Silver Ribbon award of the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists in 1968 and was nominated for two other awards.
Elvis is a 2022 epic biographical drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. It chronicles the life of the American rock and roll singer and actor Elvis Presley under the management of Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as Presley and Parker, respectively, with Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Luke Bracey in supporting roles.
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