George Fenton CBE | |
|---|---|
 Fenton in 1969 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | George Richard Ian Howe Fenton |
| Born | (1949-10-19)19 October 1949 (age 75) Bromley,Kent, England |
| Website | https://georgefenton.com/ |
George Richard Ian Howe FentonCBE (born 19 October 1949[1]), known professionally asGeorge Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received fiveAcademy Award nominations, severalIvor Novello,BAFTA,Golden Globe,Emmy andBMI Awards, and aClassic BRIT. He is one of 18 songwriters and composers to have been made a Fellow of theIvors Academy (formally BASCA).
He has frequently collaborated with the directorsRichard Attenborough,Nora Ephron,Alastair Fothergill,Stephen Frears,Nicholas Hytner,Ken Loach,Andy Tennant,Neil Jordan andTerry Gilliam.
George Fenton was born in 1949 in Bromley, Kent,[2] one of five siblings. He was educated at Carn Brea School andSt. Edward's School, Oxford. He began learning the guitar at the age of 8 and at St. Edwards studied the organ with Peter Whitehouse.[3] He did not attend music college but continued to study with Pete Whitehouse and subsequently with the ethnomusicologist and composer, John Leach.
In 1968 he appeared inAlan Bennett's firstWest End playForty Years On.[4][5] The following year he was offered a place at theCentral School of Speech and Drama but had by then decided to continue with his music and had a record contract with MCA Records. For the next few years, he continued to work in theatre playing small parts and playing and writing music.
In 1974, Fenton received his first major commission, as composer and musical director forPeter Gill's theatre production ofTwelfth Night by theRoyal Shakespeare Company inStratford-upon-Avon.[6]
Throughout the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s, Fenton worked frequently as a composer for theatre productions.[7][8] He continued to collaborate regularly with Peter Gill (composing for 9 of his productions) and also worked in regional theatre as well as for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre.
Other theatre includesThe Judas Kiss,Last Cigarette,Untold Stories,Allelujah!,Mrs Henderson Presents,Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,Talking Heads,[9]Beat The Devil andRacing Demon.
In 1992, George Fenton was credited with the Sound Track to the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Disneyland, Paris.
Fenton wrote his first television score in 1976.[10] This was a continuation of his collaboration with Peter Gill and it was for Gill's production ofHitting Town written byStephen Poliakoff.
By the late 1970s, Fenton was working regularly in television. His television work has included the regular role of soldier Martin Gimbel inEmmerdale Farm (1975-1976),LWT'sSix Plays byAlan Bennett,Objects Of Affection,An Englishman Abroad,Talking Heads (2003),Bloody Kids,Going Gently,Walter,Saigon: Year of The Cat,Fox,Out,Telling Tales,The History Man (TV series),Shoestring (TV series),The Monocled Mutineer and the multi BAFTA winningThe Jewel In The Crown.
Fenton has composed for a number of notable wildlife television programmes, often collaborating with the wildlife broadcasterDavid Attenborough and the nature documentary filmmakerAlastair Fothergill. He started on theBBC's long-running seriesWildlife on One andNatural World.
Since 1990, he has written the music for a number of wildlife series includingThe Trials of Life,Life in the Freezer,The Blue Planet,Planet Earth, andFrozen Planet. Other documentaries includeBeyond The Clouds,Shanghai Vice andBetween Clouds and Dreams (for Director Phil Agland).
In 2003, he composed and conducted the music for the feature documentary film,Deep Blue. It was performed by theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra – the first film score the orchestra had recorded in its history. In 2007 they repeated the collaboration for the feature documentary film,Earth.
In 2022 George partnered up with Alastair Fothergill and David Attenborough again, this time for BBC One’sWild Isles series.
Fenton has composed thejingles ortheme music to dozens of British television and radio programs,[6] includingShoestring,Bergerac,One O'Clock News,Six O'Clock News andNine O'Clock News,Newsnight andNewsnight Review,On the Record,Omnibus,Breakfast Time,BBC World News,BBC Reporting Scotland,BBC London Plus,Telly Addicts,Daily Politics, and BBC Radio 4'sPM programme.[11]
Fenton has written the music for over one hundred feature films.
His first major break came in 1982[12] withRichard Attenborough'sbiopicGandhi, for which he was nominated—with his collaborator,Ravi Shankar for theAcademy Award for Original Music Score. Fenton wrote another four film scores for Attenborough's films:Cry Freedom,Shadowlands,In Love and War andGrey Owl.
He has also frequently worked with the theatre and film directorNicholas Hytner, writing the score for all six of the movies that Hytner has directed. These areThe Madness of King George,The Crucible,The Object of My Affection,Center Stage,The History Boys andThe Lady in the Van. The latter three of these allowed Fenton to collaborate again with their writerAlan Bennett. Although Fenton composed the original music of five of these films, forThe Madness of King George he instead adapted and arranged the music ofHandel.[13]
Fenton's long-standing collaboration withStephen Frears has not been limited to television productions. Fenton has scored four of Frear's feature films:Dangerous Liaisons,Hero,Mary Reilly andMrs Henderson Presents. He also worked with the directorNeil Jordan, scoringThe Company of Wolves,High Spirits andWe're No Angels.
Fenton has scored more feature films forKen Loach than for any other filmmaker, by 2023, a total of 18. This started in 1994 withLadybird, Ladybird followed byLand and Freedom,Carla's Song,My Name Is Joe,Bread and Roses,The Navigators,Sweet Sixteen,Ae Fond Kiss...,The Wind That Shakes the Barley which won thePalme d'Or at the2006 Cannes Film Festival,It's a Free World...,Looking for Eric,The Angels' Share, the documentary filmThe Spirit of '45,Jimmy's Hall,I, Daniel Blake and, most recently,Sorry We Missed You and the forthcomingThe Old Oak.
Fenton has developed other long-standing collaborations with filmmakers, scoring several films each for directors as diverse asHarold Ramis,Nora Ephron,Phil Joanou andAndy Tennant, includingMultiplicity,Groundhog Day,Mixed Nuts,You've Got Mail,Final Analysis,The Fisher King,Heaven's Prisoners,Ever After: A Cinderella Story,Sweet Home Alabama (film),Anna and the King,Hitch,Bewitched andThe Secret: Dare to Dream and Andy Tennant's new thrillerUnit 234.
Fenton won anIvor Novello Award,BAFTA andEmmy Award for Best Television Score forThe Blue Planet and, in October 2002, he created "The Blue Planet in Concert" which was premiered at theRoyal Festival Hall in London. He subsequently created Planet Earth In Concert and Frozen Planet In Concert and took these concerts to venues such asHollywood Bowl,Sydney Opera House,Wembley Arena and theZiggo Dome in Amsterdam.
In 2003, he scored and conducted the music for the documentary filmDeep Blue, which was performed by theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the first film score the orchestra had recorded in its history. In 2007, they repeated the collaboration for the documentary film,Earth. With the producer Jane Carter, Fenton turned each of the scores into concert works. His live film scores continue to be performed by orchestras worldwide.[14]
Fenton was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2023 New Year Honours for services to music.[15]
Fenton founded theAssociation of Professional Composers which later amalgamated with theBritish Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and with theComposers' Guild of Great Britain to become theBritish Academy of Composers & Songwriters. He is a member of theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is a visiting professor at theRoyal College of Music and theUniversity of Nottingham.
In 2020, he and Simon Chamberlain released the album,The Piano Framed. Available digitally and on CD and vinyl, it has solo piano arrangements by Chamberlain of many of Fenton's scores includingThe Blue Planet,Dangerous Liaisons,The Lady in the Van andGroundhog Day.
