Biography
Horner was born on August 14, 1953 in Los Angeles California. He was born in the states, grew up in England, but spent most of his adolescence in California. He attended the Royal Conservatory for a year in London before returning to California to finish his undergraduate work at USC. He then went on to pursue his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Music Theory and Composition at UCLA, where he taught as a graduate student and was offered a teaching position upon graduation. At first, he thought academia was home, but after the frustration of trying to get
his first work performed, he soon gave up on that whole arena. The piece was Spectral Shimmers, a concert piece that was performed once for an audience af about four hundred in Indianapolis. The Titanic symphony will be the first concert music he's written since 1978. After his Spectral Shimmers disillusionment in 1978, he got a chance call from the AFI (American Film Institute) to score some student films. After his first project, he realised that this was the one area where he could write music, and a few days later, be in front of an orchestra, hearing what you'd written, and he was hooked.
The rest, they say, is history.
But, to fill out that history for you, Horner pushed his career forward by working for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, where many young Hollywood talents found their first work (James Cameron was the principal cameraman and special effects technician for some of the same films that Horner scored during his stint there). He resolved to never yield to the temptations of easy money in episodic television work, and he always stretched his budget to provide the best musical experience for the films on which he worked, often yielding a score far better than the films for which he wrote. This captured the attention of Paramount studios, and he was hired to score Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
The rest, they say, is history.
Horner has been nominated four times by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for best score of the year, including two nominations in the same year (1995) for Apollo 13 and Braveheart. His other two nominations were for Aliens (1986) and Field of Dreams (1989). He was also nominated for Best Song written for a Motion Picture for "Somewhere Out There" (1986). He has been nominated to win the Golden Globe for best score four times, for the scores to Aliens, Field of Dreams, Glory (1989), and Legends of the Fall (1994), as well as Best Song for "Somewhere Out There". The National Academy of Recording Arts and Science has honoured him with three Grammy Awards--two for "Somewhere Out There", for which he won Grammies for Best Song From a Motion Picture and Song of the Year, and another for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture for his score to Glory.
He lives in Calabasas, CA with his two daughters and his wife, Sarah.
Many people have asked me what Horner may be like on a personal level. Now, I don't know from experience or anything, but I have been able to gleen different things from interviews, and correspondances with people who have worked with him on a professional level. The following is some info I'd posted a few months back regarding this very topic.
Other sources have cited that Honer lives in Malibu, which is about twelve miles from Calabasas. My guess is that he lives in Malibu Canyon, which is really just a long winding road that traverses the canyon region between Calabasa/Agoura Hills and Pepperdine University, located in the outskirts of of Malibu, about half-way between Santa Monica and Point Dume. I probably passed his house every time I visited my best friend at Pepperdine. My parents live in Thousand Oaks, and my mother teaches in Agoura Hills. I've always thought it exciting, the possibility that my mom might one day teach his daughters (she taught Jonathan Taylor Thomas two years ago), or that I might bump into Horner at the Oaks Mall.
I think he's "introverted" because of all the flack he's received for his "borrowing". His defense of himself in various articles is wonderful and immediate. I especially like what he said in the Times article. I think he sometimes feels tired of not being that respected in the industry. He's known to be rough with orchestra members when they chit-chat during recording sessions, because he feels he's losing face ("They'd never do that with John Williams," he asserts in one interview).
There have been stories about Horner suddenly lapsing into rants and temper-tantrums, summarily dismissing certain instrumentalists, or even the entire orchestra, simply because of character conflicts. However, I have no idea if these stories are true; I've heard some people say they were on the sound stage when it happened, but I can't recall ever having heard anything like this from someone I respected as being non-biased (as if I am).
Lukas Kendal once said in r.m.m. that he wasn't the sort of guy "you could go out and have a beer with." I really don't know what he meant by it. I've always been curious. I've exchanged e-mails with a British gentleman who's conducted for various film-music projects and has had the opportunity to work with Horner. He wasn't exceptionally revealing about Horner's character, put he cited him as one of the "nicest" of all the film composers he'd worked with. He actually spoke quite highly of him, but most of his observations were directed towards dealing with Horner's detractors.
It's been said that Horner speeks with a British accent. Lukas Kendal says it's fake and pretentious, but Horner grew up, and speny his early college years, in England.
If you don't already know, he was born in California, grew up in England, returned to spend his adolescence in California, attended a highly respected conservatory environment college in England before returning to the states to graduate from USC, and then go on to get his masters and doctorate in music theory and composition at UCLA. He originally had thought to teach and compose in the serious university milieu, but an experience with his first concert piece took the wind from his sails, and a chance offering for the AFI (American Film Institute) put to work on a student film. He finally realsied that what he loved was not only writing, but seeing the fruit of one's labour. Only in film music could you compose and find yourself in front of an orchestra later that week, performing what you'd written.
He vowed to never sell himself out for quick cash in episodic TV work. That's because he's always been very serious about his work, and the music he writes. He's not in it for the money, but because he likes being in front of an orchestra, seeing his musical visions realised.
I think he's retreated from public interaction because he's really not the social type (in one article, Horner discusses his dislike for schmoozing with directors and producers at Hollywood parties), and he really doesn't know how to deal with his amazing success. Early in his career, someone who's registered with the Horner Fans' Network Registry here at the Shrine mentioned that they received a nicely typed letter from him (or his agent). Not too long ago, I received an e-mail from a friend who took the time to write him via his agency, and she was thrilled to report that Horner's bookkeeper (who said she normally doesn't respond to Horner's fan mail) sent a letter to her, assuring her that Horner had received her letter. That, to me, is very exciting news, because with that one exception from Horner's early career, I've never heard of anyone else ever getting a response to fan letters to him.
Even though he's a bit introverted, I have a feeling that he LOVES to talk about his craft (just read the various articles, and especially the new one from 1988's Keyboard magazine at Swayland's page). Unfortunately, he's not as socially endearing as, say, Jerry Goldsmith, and not one half as eloquent as Williams is when he discusses music.