About this Artist
“Alexandre has the awareness, intelligence, and the ability to know when he needs to propel his voice or whisper. He is one of the greatest composers in the history of the genre.” -Guillermo del Toro.
Alexandre Desplat, a true cinephile, develops his own style through his unique approach to produce a special tone and identity for each movie score. Revered for his extraordinary career as a composer of film music, he has created original scores for over 130 films and received numerous awards, including two Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, three Cesar Awards, two Golden Globes, two GRAMMY awards and numerous other nominations and distinctions. Desplat has collaborated with directors such as Wes Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, George Clooney, David Fincher, Stephen Frears, Greta Gerwig, Terence Malick, Roman Polanski and Benicio del Toro.
As a conductor of his own works in concert, Desplat has worked regularly with orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker and in prestigious venues such as Barbican, Wiener Musikverein and Paris Philharmonie.
In recent seasons he has composed new works for Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Emmanuel Pahud, the latter performing his “Pelléas et Mélisande”, Symphonie concertante for flute and orchestra (which was also later released on Warner Classics with Orchestre National de France). In 2020, his first opera “En silence” was premiered in Luxembourg, Paris and Japan, with a libretto and staging by director-musician and long-term artistic partner, Solrey. In 2021, Desplat collaborated with the choreographer Alan Lucian Øyen for a new work “The American Moth” commissioned by The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., The National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, Oslo, and premiered at Bergen International Festival. His most recent staged work, another collaboration with Øyen, was premiered by Norwegian National Ballet at Norwegian Opera in 2023.
His writing is enriched by a classical background and a diverse cultural heritage—born to a Greek mother and a French father who studied in California. This unique blend not only enables him to compose epic symphonic scores but also to skillfully incorporate elements of world music and jazz instrumentation into his soundtracks, as showcased in films like Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. During the recording of his first feature film, Alexandre Desplat met the violinist Dominique Lemonnier alias Solrey, starting an exceptional artistic exchange. She became his favourite soloist and artistic director.