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Don Davis
Don Davis
	Davis in 2017
Background information
Birth name	Donald Romain Davis
Born	February 4, 1957 (age 67); Anaheim, California, U.S.
Genres	Neo-classical; film score; television score; avant-garde;
Occupations	Composer; conductor; orchestrator;
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Varèse Sarabande La-La Land Records Albany Records
Website	www.dondavis.net

Donald Romain Davis (born February 4, 1957) is an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator known for his film and television scores. He has also composed opera, concert and chamber music. He has collaborated with well-known directors including the Wachowskis, Ronny Yu, and Jonathan Hensleigh in genres ranging from horror, to action, to comedy.

His most notable compositions were scores for Beauty and the Beast (1988), My Life and Times (1991), Lies Before Kisses (1991), A Little Piece of Heaven (1992) and seaQuest 2032 (1995), A Goofy Movie (1995), Bound (1996), House of Frankenstein (1998), Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), House on Haunted Hill (1999), and Behind Enemy Lines (2001), and most notably The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Animatrix (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2004).

Davis has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1995 for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series. He has also won four BMI Film Music Awards.

Early life and education

Davis was born on 4 February 1957 in Anaheim, California.^[1] He began playing trumpet and piano at the age of nine,^[2] and started writing music at twelve. As his affinity for music grew, so did his aspirations, and soon he was composing and arranging orchestral charts for local jazz ensembles that he also performed with.^[2]

After graduating from high school, Davis enrolled at UCLA. He continued his study of musical composition with tutor Henri Lazarof. Additionally, he learned orchestration from Albert Harris.^[3]

Career

During their orchestration lessons, Harris introduced Davis to the TV composer Joe Harnell, who supported Davis during his search for work—his first job was working for composer Mark Snow's TV show Hart to Hart. He has worked as an orchestrator and conductor for Michael Kamen, Alan Silvestri, James Horner, and Randy Newman.^[4]

Davis has nominated seven times at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1995.^[5] He received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for Beauty and the Beast (1988),^[5] and for My Life and Times (1991).^[5] He received a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score) for Lies Before Kisses (1991),^[5] and A Little Piece of Heaven (1992), and House of Frankenstein (1998).^[5] He was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series in 1994 and 1995 for scores in SeaQuest DSV, winning in 1995.^[5]

He wrote scores mostly for television series up until 1995,^[2] in which he wrote a few of the cues for the animated Disney motion picture A Goofy Movie (1995).^[1] He continued to score television series until the two then young directors, the Wachowskis, hired him to score their neo-noir film Bound (1996).^[1] Davis has composed scores for films such as Universal Soldier: The Return (1999),^[1] Hulk (2003), House on Haunted Hill (1999),^[1] and Behind Enemy Lines (2001).^[1]

In 2004, he produced the music score for the BBC science fiction documentary series Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets, released as Voyage to the Planets and Beyond in the United States. Davis' magnum opus is the Matrix franchise: The Matrix (1999),^[1] The Matrix Reloaded (2003),^[1] The Matrix Revolutions (2004),^[1] and The Animatrix (2002).^[1] It was set apart from other film scores of its time for its atonality and avant garde style of composition, with influences from polytonal minimalist works by John Adams and cluster-like as well as aleatoric techniques prominent in the works of composer Witold Lutosławski.^[1]^[2]

In addition to orchestrating and conducting his own scores, Don Davis has done orchestration work for many other composers. He was the conductor for the movie Flowers in the Attic, whose score was composed by Christopher Young, and for the TV documentary Eagles: Hell Freezes Over. He arranged music for The 86th Academy Awards as well. He is also regular orchestrator for Randy Newman.^[2]

Don Davis' political opera, Río de Sangre, premiered at the Florentine Opera Company on October 22, 2010. Excerpts of the opera had previously been performed in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Master Chorale on November 6, 2005, and the New York City Opera on May 13, 2007.^[2]

Personal life

Davis currently splits his time between Southern California and British Columbia, Canada. He has been married to Megan MacDonald since 1986, and they have two children together.^[2]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director(s)	Notes
1984	Hyperspace	Todd Durham
1988	Blackout	Doug Adams
1991	Session Man	Seth Winston	Short film
1992	Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation	Various	Composed with Steven Bramson, Bruce Broughton, Albert Lloyd Olson, Richard Stone, Stephen James Taylor & Mark Watters
1994	A Little Tailor's Christmas Story	Allan Rich	Short film
1996	Bound	The Wachowskis
1997	Warriors of Virtue	Ronny Yu
1998	The Lesser Evil	David Mackay
1999	Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying	David Mackay
	The Matrix	The Wachowskis
	Universal Soldier: The Return	Mic Rodgers
	House on Haunted Hill	William Malone
2001	Antitrust	Peter Howitt
	Valentine	Jamie Blanks
	Jurassic Park III	Joe Johnston
	The Unsaid	Tom McLoughlin
	Behind Enemy Lines	John Moore
2002	Long Time Dead	Marcus Adams
	The Animatrix	Various	Composed with Machine Head & Photek
	Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever	Kaos	—
2003	The Matrix Reloaded	The Wachowskis
2004	The Matrix Revolutions	The Wachowskis
2004	Mighty Times: The Children's March	Robert Houston	Documentary short
2006	The Marine	John Bonito
2007	The Good Life	Steve Berra
2007	Ten Inch Hero	David Mackay
2017	Tokyo Ghoul	Kentarō Hagiwara
2017	A Symphony of Hope	Brian Weidling	Documentary film
2018	Beyond the Sky	Fulvio Sestito

Orchestration work

Year	Film	Composer	Notes
1986	Police Academy 3: Back in Training	Robert Folk	Credited as additional orchestrator.
1987	Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol	Robert Folk	Credited as additional orchestrator.
1988	The In Crowd	Mark Snow
1990	Die Hard 2	Michael Kamen
1991	If Looks Could Kill	David Foster
	Hudson Hawk	Michael Kamen
	Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves	Michael Kamen
	Ricochet	Alan Silvestri
1992	Death Becomes Her	Alan Silvestri
1992	The Muppet Christmas Carol	Miles Goodman Paul Williams	Uncredited
1993	Cop and a Half	Alan Silvestri
	Last Action Hero	Michael Kamen	Uncredited
	Hocus Pocus	John Debney
	We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story	James Horner
	The Pelican Brief	James Horner
1994	When a Man Loves a Woman	Zbigniew Preisner	Also composed additional music.
	Clean Slate	Alan Silvestri	Uncredited
	Maverick	Randy Newman
	Thumbelina	Barry Manilow William Ross	Uncredited
	I Love Trouble	David Newman
	Clear And Present Danger	James Horner
	The Pagemaster
	Legends of the Fall		Uncredited
1995	A Goofy Movie	Carter Burwell	Also composed additional music & orchestrated and conducted by
	Casper	James Horner
	Apollo 13	James Horner	Uncredited
	Toy Story	Randy Newman
	Balto	James Horner	Uncredited
1996	James And The Giant Peach	Randy Newman	Also did song arrangements
	The Phantom	David Newman	Uncredited
	Courage Under Fire	James Horner	Uncredited
	Ransom	James Horner
	Michael	Randy Newman
1997	Titanic	James Horner	Credited as additional orchestrator
1997	Air Force One	Randy Newman	Rejected Score
1998	Pleasantville	Randy Newman
	A Bug's Life	Randy Newman
	Lost in Space	Bruce Broughton
2000	Meet The Parents	Randy Newman
2010	Toy Story 3
2017	Cars 3
2019	Toy Story 4
2019	Marriage Story

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1983	Square Pegs	2 episodes
1983–84	Hart to Hart	4 episodes
1986	Kay O'Brien	Episode: “Wreck the Halls”
1987	Sledge Hammer!	2 episodes
1987–90	Beauty and the Beast	48 episodes
1990	Matlock	Episode: “The Personal Trainer”
1991	My Life and Times	Episode: “The Collapse of '98”
1990–91	Tiny Toon Adventures	5 episodes
1992	The Plucky Duck Show	Episode: "A Ditch in Time"
1993	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Episode: "Face of the Enemy"
1992–95	Capitol Critters	8 episodes
1993–94	Taz-Mania	4 episodes
1994–95	SeaQuest 2032	13 episodes
1995	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Episode: "Between Mother and Daughter"

Television films and limited series

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1988	Bluegrass	Simon Wincer
	A Stoning in Fulham County	Larry Elikann
	Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story	Roy Campanella II
1989	Home Fires Burning	Glenn Jordan
1990	Running Against Time	Bruce Seth Green
1991	Lies Before Kisses	Lou Antonio
1991	A Little Piece of Heaven	Mimi Leder
1992	Notorious	Colin Bucksey
1992	Woman with a Past	Mimi Leder
1993	Country Estates	Donald Petrie
1993	Murder of Innocence	Tom McLoughlin
1994	In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness	Jeff Bleckner
1994	Leave of Absence	Tom McLoughlin
1995	Sleep, Baby, Sleep	Armand Mastroianni
1996	For Love Alone: The Ivana Trump Story	Michael Lindsay-Hogg
	In the Lake of the Woods	Carl Schenkel
	The Beast	Jeff Bleckner
	The Perfect Daughter	Harry Longstreet
	Doomsday Virus	Eric Laneuville
1997	Alibi	Andy Wolk
	Not in This Town	Donald Wrye
	A Match Made in Heaven	Paul Wendkos
	Weapons of Mass Distraction	Stephen Surjik
	The Third Twin	Tom McLoughlin
	House of Frankenstein	Peter Werner
1998	The Lake	David Jackson
	Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story	Waris Hussein
	Route 9	David Mackay
1999	In the Company of Spies	Tim Matheson
2000	Hell Swarm	Tim Matheson
	Race Against Time	Geoff Murphy
	Personally Yours	Jeffrey Reiner
2002	Murder in Greenwich	Tom McLoughlin
2004	Space Odyssey	Joe Ahearne	Documentary
2006	Augusta, Gone	Tim Matheson