Soundtrack

Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch were given the near impossible task of scoring the sequel to one of the greatest and most beloved science-fiction films of all time. The original BLADE RUNNER had an incredible score by Vangelis that has gone on to be one of the most iconic pieces of music in film history, so it’s to

Film composers who venture into the hallowed domain of the concert hall are sometimes greeted with raised eyebrows. Maybe that’s why film-music scholar Jon Burlingame called movie scores a “much-maligned stepchild of 20th-century composition.” Yet for English composer and conductor Benjamin Wallfisch, the differentiation has never been a problem.

“Film composers have their own distinct voices,” Wallfisch, 33, said. “As a composer, you never exist in a vacuum. I love the fact that Shostakovich and Martinu and Walton, who were such accomplished concert composers, had very active lives in film. Shostakovich wrote huge amounts of film music.”
 

During a seven-year apprenticeship to Italian composer Dario Marianelli, Wallfisch orchestrated Marianelli’s 2008 Oscar-winning score for “Atonement.” Wallfisch also conducted the film’s soundtrack with the English Chamber Orchestra, where he had served as associate conductor beginning at age 22.