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Hans Zimmer poses at his studio in 1995

"I wake up around noon, light a cigarette, get a cup of coffee, sit in the bathtub for an hour and daydream, and I usually come up with some ideas... It's a very irresponsible life. The only decisions I make are about the notes I'm writing."


Exploding into the world of film music after several years as a member of a 1980's rock band, Hans Zimmer has become a pioneer of the dynamic mix between synthesized and orchestral styles. His scores are broadly thematic, ethnically diverse, and immensly popular with a younger generation of film music fans. His Los Angeles based music studio, Media Ventures, is, as he deems it, a "School of Sound," and offers young, talented composers a place to jump-start their careers in Hollywood. He has collaborated with many of his friends, colleagues, and students for his scores after 1995. "I like working in a collaborative way," he says. "I'm not very ego-driven about being 'The Composer.' Whoever brings in great ideas should be welcomed." These collaborations culminated into an award-winning score for the blockbuster Gladiator in 2000, translating into one of the best selling film score albums of all time.

Zimmer and his producing partner, Jay Rifkin, custom built the Media Ventures studio complex in Santa Monica for the writing and production of music for film, television, and commercials. Composers best known for working with Zimmer are Mark Mancina, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, Jeff Rona, Klaus Badelt, and Lisa Gerrard, some of whom travel from around the globe to work on projects for which Zimmer is the primary composer. In addition to his composing work, Zimmer heads DreamWorks' film music division. His appointment marks the first time that a composer has headed the music department of a major studio since the days of Dimitri Tiomkin at MGM and Alfred Newman at Twentieth Century Fox. So large is Zimmer's influence on audiences and potential buyers of film music albums, some record labels put Zimmer's name first and foremost on score albums for which he only played a minor coordinating role.

Zimmer in 1996

Among his roughly 100 feature film works, Zimmer has received major awards nominations for Rain Man, The Lion King, Crimson Tide, The Preacher's Wife, As Good As It Gets, The Prince of Egypt, The Thin Red Line, and Gladiator. While mainstream fans best know Zimmer for his Disney and DreamWorks animated picture scores, fans and industry insiders in the film music world credit Crimson Tide as a turning point in both Zimmer's career and the scoring business. The Grammy-winning score, often heard in trailers since, was a departure from the norm, making use of digital synthesizers, electronic keyboards, and the latest computer technology to digitally produce a rousing score with traditional orchestral arrangements. In the decade since, Zimmer has expanded his use of percussion and vocalists in ethnic and electronic arrays unheard in the history of film music.

His personality is different than those of many other mainstream composers; he is reluctant to perform his work in public, and does not conduct his own scores. Inspired by Ennio Morricone's The Mission, Zimmer is known to peacefully experiment on his Yamaha synthesizers with a cup of coffee nearby. One of his biggest fans (after first hearing Crimson Tide) is director and producer Steven Spielberg, whose friendship and loyalty toward John Williams is perhaps the only reason why Zimmer has not become a regular for Spielberg-directed films. Born in 1957, Zimmer still has many active years of teaching and scoring to come. His innovative integration of digital and orchestral elements will likely earn him continued success well into the digital age of film music.