Gabriel Yared | |
|---|---|
 Yared at the2017 Cannes Film Festival | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1949-10-07)7 October 1949 (age 76) |
| Occupation | Composer |
Gabriel Yared (Arabic:غبريال يارد; born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-Frenchcomposer, best known for his work in French and Americancinema.
Born inBeirut,Lebanon, Yared scored the French filmsBetty Blue andCamille Claudel. He later worked on English-language films, particularly those directed byAnthony Minghella. He won anAcademy Award for Best Original Score and aGrammy Award for his work onThe English Patient (1996) and was nominated for bothThe Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) andCold Mountain (2003).[1]
When Yared was 7, his father sent him to an accordion teacher. Two years later Yared stopped his accordion lessons and started music theory and piano lessons. Although he was not necessarily a gifted pianist, Yared was interested in reading music. When Yared was 14, his piano teacher died and Yared replaced him as the organist ofUniversité Saint-Joseph. Yared used the university's library to read the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, and many other composers. This extensive reading inspired his first original composition, apiano waltz.[citation needed]
Yared gained a degree in law and did not formally study music at the university level until he traveled to France in 1969 to attend theÉcole Normale de Musique de Paris as a non-registered student. There he learned music composition fromHenri Dutilleux.[citation needed]
At the end of 1971, Yared went to Brazil to visit his uncle and was asked by the president of the World Federation of Light Music Festivals to write a song to represent the Lebanese in theRio de Janeiro Song Festival. The song he composed went on to win first prize. While in Brazil, he also performed with a small orchestra. Yared subsequently said that his time in Brazil greatly influenced his work.[citation needed]
In 1975, he arranged the albumMinacantalucio for the popular Italian singerMina.[citation needed]
He then went back to France, where he met and collaborated with theCosta Brothers,Jacques Dutronc,Françoise Hardy,Charles Aznavour,Mireille Mathieu, and numerous other musicians. This was a prolific period for the composer and he wrote nearly 3,000 pieces over a span of about six years. His contributions included a number of radio and TV jingles, such asTF1 news jingles and an episode on the seriesIn the Tracks of.
Among the collaborations withFrançoise Hardy, Yared produced and arranged her 1977 albumStar, composing two songs of the album,Chanson sur toi et nous andFatiguée.
Yared composed and producedYara Lapidus' 2018 albumIndéfiniment, and the final trackEncor Encor (bonus track version featuringIggy Pop) is a song based onBetty Blue soundtrack,C'est le vent, Betty.[2][3][4]
Albums as a singer:Quand Le Monde (1972) -Quand Le Monde andOuabadabada, Oui! ||Toc Toc Toqué (1979) - Gabriel Yared: Composer, Arranger, Singer, Producer.Michel Jonasz: Lyricist. -Papa Schumann - video:INA, Institut national de l'audiovisuel -"Numéro un" Season 6 - Episode 5 (16 February 1980) Gabriel Yared "Papa Schumann" -YouTube |ina.fr[5][6]
In 2012, he became Honorary President ofLes Amis de Maurice Ravel. (Gabriel Yared, Président d’honneur des Amis de Maurice Ravel)[7][8]
Yared was a member of the Jury at the2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Yared is best known for his collaborations with the lateAnthony Minghella. His first collaboration with Minghella was the 1996 filmThe English Patient, which was highly acclaimed and won him an Oscar for Best Original Score.[9] He composed the scores for all of Minghella's subsequent films and the music for the television seriesThe No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, co-created by Minghella andRichard Curtis.
Aside from his work with Minghella, Yared scored a number of other films, includingBetty Blue (1986),Map of the Human Heart (1992),City of Angels (1998),Message in a Bottle (1999),Autumn in New York (2000),The Next Best Thing (2000),Possession (2002), andBon Voyage (2003). He had a notable collaboration withRené Laloux in the late 1980s onGandahar[10] andHow Wang-fo was saved produced at theSEK Studio inNorth Korea.
Cassandra Clare reported in August 2012 that Yared was tapped to compose the score forThe Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. However, he was eventually replaced on the project byAtli Örvarsson.[11]
In 2004, Yared's score for the filmTroy was rejected less than a month before the film's opening as a result of the poor reception by atest screening audience.[12] The test audience were said to have found Yared's music too "brassy and bold".James Horner, the composer of the scores for such films asBraveheart andTitanic was then hired to create a replacement score in less than four weeks.
Yared expressed his dismay at the score's rejection in an open letter which was posted on his website. He said that the score which the test audience had heard was not yet finished and mixed properly, and that the studio had given him no opportunity to alter his score in light of the audience's reaction.
Warner Bros. still owns the rights to Yared'sTroy score and an official recording is not currently available and may never be (although selections from the score were briefly posted on Yared's website and private promotional CD).[citation needed]
Film score critic Christian Clemmensen ofFilmtracks.com felt that Yared's work forTroy was far superior to what Horner had written, giving Horner's score a 3-star rating and Yared's a 5-star rating, saying that it was "outstanding," and called it the "pinnacle of Yared's career."[13]
Yared created the score to the narrative balletRaven Girl choreographed to the Royal Ballet by Wayne McGregor afterthe eponymous story by Audrey Niffenegger.[14]
Yared has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score on three occasions. He won forThe English Patient in 1996. He was also nominated forThe Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) andCold Mountain (2003), but lost toJohn Corigliano andHoward Shore, respectively. He has also received three Golden Globe and three BAFTA nominations for the same films, and won both awards forThe English Patient.
He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, again winning forThe English Patient.
Yared has been honored with numerous career achievement awards;Film Fest Gent – Joseph Plateau Honorary Award (2001),Prix France Musique-Sacem de la musique de film (2008),European Film Awards – European Achievement in World Cinema (2010),Prix Henri-Langlois (2016),Dubai International Film Festival – Lifetime Achievement Award (2016),[15] Prix UCMF (Union des compositeurs de musiques de films) – Prix Hommage (2019),[16][17][18]Hollywood in Vienna – Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award (2019), Festival du Cinéma et Musique de Film de La Baule –Golden Ibis Award (Honorary Award): Ibis d’Or d’Honneur (2019),[19][20]World Soundtrack Award – Lifetime Achievement (2020) and Les Plumes d’Or (hosted by APE, Association de la Presse Etrangère & UJC, Union des Journalistes de Cinéma) – Grand Prix de la Mémoire du Cinéma (2024).[21][22]
