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James Newton Howard in the late 1990's

"Composing is a natural fit. As far as the creative process goes, I'd rather do this than anything else, by far. Something different happened to me when I started to write music to images. It was a feeling of excitement and connection and a sense of being in the right place that I never had before."
-- James Newton Howard in 2000

Lingering close to the forefront of film score stardom, James Newton Howard's body of work during the 1990's is as diverse as any composer in Hollywood. Extensively trained in both the arts of orchestral and electronic music, Howard has made a living by avoiding a single typecast role in the industry. His talents have produced scores for genres including pop/rock, children's, horror, action, romance, and drama. First noticed by mainstream score collectors in 1991 for his Academy Award nominated score The Prince of Tides, Howard has scored over 60 large-budget, feature films since, gaining him numerous award nominations and wins for Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars. He has composed some of the best known television themes of the modern age, with his E.R. theme as the pinnacle of all. His collaborations with several of Hollywood's best directors, as well as pop icons Elton John and Cher, place him in a unique situation in the film scoring industry.

One of Howard's very best attributes as a composer is his ability create a different style of music for every score he writes. He is the ultimate aural chameleon. While other composers' works can be instantly recognized in the theatre simply because of their orchestrations or thematic styles, Howard's scores are never easily identified as the products of his imagination. This ability has caused him to become one of the most highly sought composers, and his string of highly successful scores in the late 1990's has catapulted him into the "A" list of composers. He is a regular artist for films in which Julia Roberts stars, and with Dinosaur in 2000, he has become the next crown jewel of the Disney franchise for years to come. Directors have even been known to ask Howard to compose themes for a project before it even begins shooting. From the subtle, but powerful undertones of The Sixth Sense to the bombastic, exotic flight of Waterworld, Howard figures to be a key player in the film score arena during the first decade of the 21st Century.