Don Davis (composer)
Donald Romain "Don" Davis ( born February 4, 1957 in Anaheim, California) is an American film music composer who was best known for his soundtracks for the Matrix movies.
Life
Don Davis began playing at the age of nine years, trumpet and piano, and three years later he tried to own pieces of music. Simultaneously with his enthusiasm for music grew his claims and he has composed and arranged soon orchestral music pieces for local jazz ensembles with which he performed together.
After graduating high school, he studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA), majoring in music theory and composition. Although mainly interested Davis for jazz and rock, he also dabbled in modern music. The University showed him to new possibilities, long before he thought to be a film music composer.
After he had successfully completed, he studied under Albert Harris continues composition. Harris introduced the young Davis in front of the television and film composer Joe Harnell, which is particularly well known for his music for the television series V and The Incredible Hulk.
Harnell was Davis ' feeling impressed for orchestral detail. Harnell was for Davis a mentor and introduced him into the professional world of film music. Davis liked his new tasks and at the age of 22 he got a job at Harnell as one of the conductors for The Incredible Hulk.
Now Davis had a foot in the door to the music business and established himself in the scene with different orders. He conducted, for example, Mark Snow's music for Hart to Hart and composed for four episodes themselves this early work called Lee Holdridge on the scene, who wrote the music theme for the TV series Beauty and the Beast. He helped Davis in this series to come in and take over some compositions. Of his four episodes, which he was allowed to take over, he was honored for A Time to Heal with the Emmy nominated and for To Reign in Hell, than what he was still young composers earned much fame.
In addition, he worked until the late 1990s for film composers such as James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Michael Kamen or Randy Newman as an orchestrator. He himself says that he particularly liked working with Randy Newman and James Horner has taught him much about the film music business.
After Beauty and the Beast Davis was excited by the work of a composer and was commissioned to add sound to dozens of television and movie series. So he worked for Steven Spielberg's SeaQuest DSV for Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story ( with Ann -Margret ) and for the NBC mini-series House of Frankenstein.
For his television work was Don Davis eight Emmy nominations and two awards.
In 1996, he composed for Larry and Andy Wachowski thriller Bound - Bound and between Davis and the two brothers a solid working relationship developed. Bound For he acquired a wide pool of musical ideas and the Wachowski brothers then chose their favorite.
Later the soundtrack created for movie Matrix, who was one of the most successful films of the year. Davis here combines minimalist and polychord techniques as in John Adams with dissonant Tonschichtungen the Polish avant-garde ( Penderecki, Lutoslawski ), where there have been outbreaks in " classic styles " are. Especially the brass are required with extremely virtuosic passages. Such a soundtrack brings so by the constant change of music the complexities of a film like The Matrix expression.
Currently, Don Davis lives with his wife Megan and their two children in Southern California.