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Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch (born 7 August 1979) is a British composer, conductor, and producer—known for his work on film scores. He has contributed to over 50 feature films since the mid-2000s, including notable works like Blade Runner 2049, Shazam!, It, It Chapter Two, The Invisible Man, Hidden Figures, A Cure for Wellness, The Flash, Twisters, Alien: Romulus, and Kraven the Hunter.
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Benjamin Wallfisch | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch |
| Born | 7 August 1979 London, England |
| Genres | Film score |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Website | benjaminwallfisch |
His work has earned recognition including a joint nomination with Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer for Best Original Score at the 74th Golden Globe Awards for Hidden Figures, as well as nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for Blade Runner 2049. In 2020, Wallfisch was nominated for Film Composer of the Year for the second consecutive year at the World Soundtrack Awards.[1]
Wallfisch's film compositions have contributed to movies with a combined worldwide box office revenue of over $2.5 billion.[2] In 2019, Variety acknowledged his achievements by including him in their Billion Dollar Composer series.[3]
Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch was born on 7 August 1979 in London, England, to Elizabeth Wallfisch (née Hunt), an Australian Baroque violinist, and Raphael Wallfisch, a British cellist. He is the eldest of their three children. His paternal grandparents are pianist Peter Wallfisch and cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the latter of which was Holocaust survivor who, as a member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, was saved from extermination, as cello players were hard to replace.[4] They were Jewish emigrants from the city of Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). His great-grandfather was conductor Albert Coates.[citation needed]
Wallfisch has been nominated for multiple awards, including a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, two Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards. He composed Andy Muschietti's It, It Chapter Two, and The Flash, David F. Sandberg's Shazam!, Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man, co-composed Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 with Hans Zimmer, and wrote the score for Simon McQuoid's Mortal Kombat for New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.[5][6]
Other projects include Neil Marshall's Hellboy, Academy Award Best Picture nominee Ted Melfi's Hidden Figures (in collaboration with Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer), and David F. Sandberg's Annabelle: Creation. He contributed music based on Elgar's "Enigma' Variations" for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk. [7]
Wallfisch has also scored Gore Verbinski's A Cure for Wellness, the Steven Spielberg produced short film Auschwitz, directed by James Moll, James Marsh's King of Thieves, and Steven Knight's Serenity.
Wallfisch has released 25 albums and has performed over 100 live concerts worldwide, leading orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony at venues including the Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House and Royal Festival Hall. He has collaborated, recorded, and performed his music with artists including Lang Lang, Herbie Hancock and Yuja Wang.[citation needed]
He has collaborated with Pharrell Williams three times, including a live performance at the 2015 Grammy Awards, and he arranged Adele's 2017 Grammy Awards performance of George Michael's "Fastlove".[citation needed]
Wallfisch has been a member of the BAFTA Academy since 2009, was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2014, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017.[8]
Wallfisch resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and daughter.[citation needed]
Film
As primary score composer
As composer of additional music
| Year | Title | Director(s) | Composer(s) | Studio(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Moon | Duncan Jones | Clint Mansell | Stage 6 Films Limelight Pictures Sony Pictures Classics |
— |
| 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | Steve McQueen | Hans Zimmer | Summit Entertainment Regency Enterprises Film4 Productions Fox Searchlight Pictures |
— |
| 2015 | The Little Prince | Mark Osborne | Hans Zimmer Richard Harvey |
ON Animation Studios M6 Films Netflix |
— |
| 2016 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | Zack Snyder | Hans Zimmer Junkie XL |
DC Entertainment RatPac-Dune Entertainment Cruel and Unusual Films Warner Bros. Pictures |
— |
| 2017 | Dunkirk | Christopher Nolan | Hans Zimmer | Syncopy Inc. Warner Bros. Pictures |
Composed the "Nimrod" variation, based on the theme by Edward Elgar |
Television
| Year | Title | Network(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Breaking the Mould | BBC One | Television film |
| 2013 | The Thirteenth Tale | BBC Two | |
| 2014 | The Crimson Field | BBC One | 6 episodes |
| 2015 | The Enfield Haunting | Sky Witness | 3 episodes |
| 2019 | Hostile Planet | National Geographic |
Theatre
| Year | Title | Director(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Peter Pan | Ben Harrison | London / San Francisco |
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