Biography

James Horner is an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score for the 1997 film Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time. Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with directors such as James Cameron, Mel Gibson and Ron Howard. Other scores he has composed on include those for Commando, Titanic, Braveheart, Willow, Apollo 13, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Cocoon, Legends of the Fall, Aliens, Glory, The Mask of Zorro, Field of Dreams, Enemy at the Gates, Casper, Troy, Bicentennial Man, The Rocketeer, A Beautiful Mind, Mighty Joe Young, The Perfect Storm, Deep Impact, Avatar and more recently, The Amazing Spider-Man.

Horner started playing piano at the age of five. His early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He subsequently attended Verde Valley High School in Sedona, Arizona. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California. After he earned a master's degree he started working on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished teaching a course in music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.

Most Notable Awards

44 Award Wins, 43 Nominations

Oscar	1 Win
Golden Globe	1 Win

Horner's most successful film score came with the "Titanic" in 1997, exposing his name, and music, worldwide. 2009 saw Horner working with director James Cameron on the film "Avatar," which went on to surpass the "Titanic" as the highest-grossing film of all time. Horner dedicated two years to developing his score for Avatar, refusing to work on any other films at the time as his sole focus was on creating the right feel for the movie.