Gabriel Yared

An Oscar-winning film composer associated with both French and American art-house cinemas, Lebanon-born Gabriel Yared started his career as a pop composer and musical arranger for the likes of Michel Jonasz and Françoise Hardy. His first encounter with films came in 1973 with Samy Pavel's Miss O'Gynie et les Hommes Fleurs. Six years later, he was invited by Jean-Luc Godard to score Every Man for Himself, and went on to compose up to seven scores a year. Unlike other prolific film composers, such productivity didn't result in simple repetition; Yared sought his inspiration in various genres and styles, ranging from classics to folk, rock, and jazz. His moody saxophone compositions in Betty Blue and his score for The Lover, which experimented with Asian instruments, were awarded Césars (French Oscars). In 1997, he took home an Oscar for The English Patient (1996). Subsequent career highlights included his Academy Award-nominated scores for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003), and the Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia (2009). In 2013, the Royal Ballet premiered Raven Girl, featuring a story by novelist Audrey Niffenegger and music by Yared. He followed that with more film work, including music for Angelina Jolie's By the Sea (2015) and the U.S.-Spain co-production The Promise (2016), about the Armenian Genocide. ~ Yuri German & Marcy Donelson, Rovi