Free Republic

After 85 years, Oscar is putting on his very first concert, and there are plans to televise future shows worldwide. The motion picture academy will present a live Oscar Concert in the days leading up to the 86th annual Academy Awards that celebrates the year's nominated music. The Feb. 27 concert at UCLA's Royce Hall will feature all five original scores performed by an 80-piece orchestra conducted by each nominated composer, plus performances of the four original songs up for Oscars this year.

Put six film composers in a room with a bottle of wine and camaraderie is sure to develop quickly. That’s exactly what happened on Dec. 5 at Acabar in Los Angeles when THR’s composer roundtable got underway. While actors, directors and producers routinely get all the filmmaking glory, composers are, as one prominent agent said before the roundtable, the “red- headed stepchild” of Hollywood. Frequently working in isolation, facing punishing deadlines and often tasked with “fixing” problematic material, film composers certainly have their fair share of angst — but they also love to discuss the minutiae of a craft that...

Thomas Newman had his first feature job as an Orchestrator on Return of the Jedi, and has since crafted a career scoring more movies than you can shake a stick at (go ahead, try it). His most recent work includes moving music for Wall-E, The Help, Revolutionary Road and Little Children. He’s got a moderate spectrum of style, but it’s clear he focuses on dramatic, sweeping work.