David Metzger

David Metzger
Born	(1960-12-12) December 12, 1960 (age 64) Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film score composer, arranger, and orchestrator

David Metzger (born December 12, 1960) is an American composer, conductor, arranger, and orchestrator who has worked on many Disney Animation films, including Wish , Frozen , Frozen 2 , Moana , Planes , Wreck-It Ralph , Tarzan , Brother Bear , and Mufasa: The Lion King . ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} In addition to his work for Disney, he has done orchestrations for over 50 major films, composed the musical scores for Tarzan 2 , Brother Bear 2 , and Tarzan & Jane , ^{[2] [3]} and has numerous video game, theme park, television, and commercial credits, as well as co-arranging and orchestrating "When You Wish Upon a Star" for the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo with Mark Mancina, and co-composing the 2013 DisneyToon Studios logo with Mancina. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his producing work on Frozen 2.^{[ citation needed ]}

Metzger received a Tony and a Drama Desk nomination in 1998 for his orchestration of Broadway musical The Lion King .^{[ citation needed ]} He won a DVDX award for best original score in a DVD premiere movie for Tarzan 2 in 2006.

He has orchestrated the Broadway musical Frozen ^[5] and is also orchestrating the musical August Rush. ^[6]

Career

Metzger was the arranger for jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in the late 1980s. ^[7] From 1992 to 1997, he was the arranger for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno .

Metzger was a longtime collaborator with film composer Mark Mancina. ^[8] Beginning in 2008 he has also worked with other notable Hollywood and Broadway composers including Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Julia Michaels, Benjamin Rice, Alan Menken, John Powell, Alan Silvestri, Christophe Beck, and others. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Personal life

Metzger grew up in Corvallis, Oregon. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from California State University, Long Beach. ^{[12] [13]} He also did graduate work at UCLA. He began composing for choir and jazz band in junior high school. In his young adult years, he wrote many jazz band charts that are still played today.

Metzger currently lives in Oregon with his wife. He has two grown sons.

Discography

Film orchestrations

1990s

Year	Title	Studio(s)	Composer	Notes
1994	The Lion King	Walt Disney Pictures	Hans Zimmer
1997	Speed 2: Cruise Control	20th Century Fox	Mark Mancina
1998	Armageddon	Touchstone	Trevor Rabin
	Return to Paradise	Universal Pictures	Mark Mancina
1999	Tarzan	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Mark Mancina

2000s

Year	Title	Studio(s)	Composer(s)	Notes
2000	Bait	Warner Bros.	Mark Mancina
2001	Training Day	Warner Bros.	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music
	Domestic Disturbance	Paramount Pictures	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music
2003	Atlantis: Milo's Return	Walt Disney Home Entertainment Disneytoon Studios	Don L. Harper
	Bad Boys II	Columbia Pictures	Trevor Rabin
	Brother Bear	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Mark Mancina	Vocal Arranger
	The Haunted Mansion	Walt Disney Pictures	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music Sound Consultant
2004	The Lion King 1½	Walt Disney Home Entertainment Disneytoon Studios	Don L. Harper
2005	Asylum	Paramount Classics	Mark Mancina	Additional Music Arranger
2006	Glory Road	Walt Disney Pictures	Trevor Rabin	Additional Orchestrations
	Scary Movie 4	Dimension Films	James L. Venable
	Flyboys	MGM	Trevor Rabin
2007	August Rush	Warner Bros.	Mark Mancina
	Shooter	Paramount Pictures	Mark Mancina	Synthesizer Programmer
	Live Free or Die Hard	20th Century Fox	Marco Beltrami	Arranger of "America the Beautiful"
	The Simpsons Movie	20th Century Fox	Hans Zimmer
2008	Camille	Ruddy Morgan Productions	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music
	Horton Hears a Who!	20th Century Fox	John Powell
	Kung Fu Panda	Dreamworks Animation	John Powell Hans Zimmer
	Hancock	Columbia Pictures	John Powell
	Bolt	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	John Powell
2009	Imagine That	Paramount Pictures Nickelodeon Movies	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music
	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	20th Century Fox	Alan Silvestri
	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	20th Century Fox	John Powell
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Paramount Pictures	Alan Silvestri
	Hurricane Season	The Weinstein Company Dimension Films	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music

2010s

Year	Title	Studio(s)	Composer(s)	Notes
2010	Diary of a Wimpy Kid	20th Century Fox	Theodore Shapiro
	Knight and Day	20th Century Fox	John Powell
	How to Train Your Dragon	Dreamworks Animation	John Powell
2011	Mars Needs Moms	Walt Disney Pictures	John Powell
	Winnie The Pooh	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Henry Jackman
	Rio	20th Century Fox	John Powell
	Kung Fu Panda 2	Dreamworks Animation	Hans Zimmer John Powell
	X-Men: First Class	20th Century Fox	Henry Jackman
	Captain America: The First Avenger	Paramount Pictures	Alan Silvestri
	Happy Feet Two	Warner Bros.	John Powell
2012	The Raven	Intrepid Pictures	Lucas Vidal
	The Pirates: Band of Misfits	Sony Pictures Animation	Theodore Shapiro
	Emperor	Krasnoff Foster Productions	Alex Heffes
	The Lorax	Universal Pictures	John Powell
	Ice Age: Continental Drift	20th Century Fox	John Powell
	Wreck-It Ralph	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Henry Jackman
	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2	Lionsgate	Carter Burwell
	The Avengers	Marvel Studios	Alan Silvestri
2013	The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone	Freestyle Releasing	Marc Fantini Steffan Fantini
	Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return	Clarius Entertainment Prana Studios	Toby Chu
	Escape Plan	Emmett/Furla Films	Alex Heffes
	Planes	Walt Disney Pictures Disneytoon Studios	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music
	Frozen	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Christophe Beck Robert Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez	Additional Work as Song Arranger
2014	Planes: Fire and Rescue	Walt Disney Pictures Disneytoon Studios	Mark Mancina	Composer of Additional Music
	Muppets Most Wanted	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Christophe Beck
	Rio 2	20th Century Fox	John Powell
	How to Train Your Dragon 2	DreamWorks Animation	John Powell
2015	Strange Magic	Touchstone Pictures Lucasfilm	Marius de Vries	Choir Contractor
	Frozen Fever	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Christophe Beck	Additional Work as Song Arranger and Conductor
	Ant-Man	Marvel Studios	Christophe Beck
2016	Ice Age: Collision Course	20th Century Fox	John Debney
	Moana	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Mark Mancina Lin-Manuel Miranda Opetaia Foa'i	Additional work as Song, Score, and Vocal Arranger, Additional Music Composer
2017	Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie	DreamWorks Animation	Theodore Shapiro
	Olaf's Frozen Adventure	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Christophe Beck	Additional work as Music Song Producer and Song and Score Arranger
	The Star	Sony Pictures Animation	John Paesano
2018	Ralph Breaks the Internet	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Henry Jackman	Song Arranger and Orchestrator of "A Place Called Slaughter Race"
2019	The Lion King	Walt Disney Pictures Fairview Entertainment	Hans Zimmer
	Frozen 2	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Animation Studios	Christophe Beck Robert Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez	Song Arranger and Orchestrator of all songs; Score Orchestrator; Co-Producer of all songs

2020s

Year	Title	Studio(s)	Composer(s)	Notes
2022	Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile	Columbia Pictures Sony Pictures Releasing	Matthew Margeson Benj Pasek and Justin Paul	Song Arranger, Producer, and Orchestrator of "Take A Look At Us Now"
	Spirited	Apple TV+ Apple Studios	Dominic Lewis Benj Pasek and Justin Paul	Song Arranger, Producer, and Orchestrator of all songs
	Disenchanted	Walt Disney Pictures	Alan Menken	Song Arranger and Orchestrator of all songs
2024	Mufasa: The Lion King	Walt Disney Pictures	Nicholas Britell	Producer and Orchestrator

Broadway orchestrations

Year	Title	Notes
1997	The Lion King	Nominated for Tony Award for Best Orchestrations Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Orchestrations
2016	Up Here	La Jolla Playhouse
2018	Frozen
	August Rush	Upcoming

Film and TV composer

Years	Title	Notes
1992–1997	The Tonight Show with Jay Leno	TV, NBC 23 episodes
1998–2000	The Magnificent Seven	TV, CBS 12 episodes
2001–2003	The Legend of Tarzan	TV, Disney 9 episodes
2002	Tarzan & Jane	Disney DVDX Nomination for Best Original Score in a DVD Premiere Movie Co-composed with Patrick Griffin and Don L. Harper
2005	Blood+	Aniplex, Production I.G. Co-composed with Mark Mancina
	Tarzan II	Disney DVDX Winner for Best Original Score in a DVD Premiere Movie Co-composed with Mark Mancina
2006	Brother Bear 2	Disney
2023	Once Upon a Studio
	Wish

Video games

• You Don't Know Jack (1999).
• Sorcery (2012). Arranger, additional music. Sony Computer Entertainment
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009). Additional music, 3 levels. Activision

Miscellaneous

Disney Castle Logo. Orchestrator and Arranger. Disney, 2006.

References

1. Baer, April. "Salem's David Metzger: Shaping The Sound Of Frozen". www.opb.org. Archived from the original on 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
2. Metzger, Dave. "Home". www.davemetzgermusic.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
3. Metzger, Dave. "IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities". IMDb. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
4. Kakadelis, Tina (2024-12-17). "Composer Dave Metzger Returns to Pride Rock with Mufasa". Film Obsessive. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
5. "See Who Landed Coveted Leads in 'Frozen' Songwriters' New Musical, Up Here | Playbill". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
6. "August Rush - DKC/O&M". DKC/O&M. Archived from the original on 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
7. Ferguson, Maynard. "arrangements by Dave Metzger". UNT libraries finding aids. Archived from the original on 26 November 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
8. Curtin, Barbara. "Sounds of success: Oregon composer makes 'Planes' soar". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
9. Stabler, David. "Disney's 'Frozen': A behind-the-scenes look at the movie's music that gets its magic from an Oregon man". OregonLive.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
10. "'Frozen' arranger enjoys Oscar glory from afar in Salem". www.opb.org. Archived from the original on 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
11. "'Frozen' arranger working on sequel, 'Frozen Fever'". OregonLive.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
12. "The Music Behind the Screen: Interview with Orchestrator Dave Metzger". The Music Behind the Screen. 9 June 2011. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
13. "The Orchestrator | The Score". www.thescore.org.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}

External links

• David Metzger at IMDb  
• David Metzger discography at Discogs
• David Metzger at AllMusic