music.wikisort.org - Composer

Jeff Danna is an award-winning Canadian film composer. He has composed or co-composed scores for a wide range of films and television, including The Boondock Saints (1999), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Silent Hill (2006), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Storks (2016), The Breadwinner (2017), The Addams Family (2019), Onward (2020), Guillermo Del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia (2020), Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon (2022) and Julia (2022).[1]

Jeff Danna
Background information
Born	Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Film and television scores, Celtic, jazz, ambient, electronic
Occupation(s)	Composer
Years active	1989 – present
Website	www.jeffdanna.com

His older brother, composer Mychael Danna, is a frequent collaborator, and the two have received Emmy nominations for their work on Camelot (2011), Tyrant (2014-2016), and Alias Grace (2017). Additionally, Danna has been nominated for six Annie Awards, won five BMI Film & TV Awards, a Gemini Award, a Genie award, two Hollywood Music in Media Awards, and 15 SOCAN Awards.[1]

Early life

Danna was born in Burlington, Ontario, to a musical family active in local theatre and church choir. A reluctant young piano student, Danna found solace in an electric guitar left behind at his home by a friend. Unknowingly following in the path of three generations of Winnipeg mandolin players, progress came quickly. He began playing professionally at the age of 15 until a hand injury brought his performance career to a halt at 22.[2]

Career

Danna's first foray into film scoring occurred while recovering from his injury. Unable to play for extended periods of time, his brother, Mychael, suggested that he record the guitar parts on some of Mychael’s first scores, figuring that they could take breaks at intervals as necessitated by his injury. Seeing a way to sustain his music career, Danna turned to film scoring. Subsequently, the brothers' first co-writing venture, Cold Comfort, was nominated for a Genie award and laid the foundation for Jeff’s career in film and many future collaborations with his brother.[2]

After cutting his teeth on independent Canadian features, Danna moved to Los Angeles to begin his work in television, landing jobs on the CBS crime show Sweating Bullets, Beverly Hills 90210, and the Warner Brothers' legacy title, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. A series of television movies followed, notably Showtime’s My Own Country for director Mira Nair, The Matthew Shepard Story (a Gemini Best Score winner), Ice Bound, and Spinning Boris for director Roger Spottiswoode.

Feature film work began with the indie Uncorked (At Sachem Farm), starring Minnie Driver and Rufus Sewell, featuring the on-camera fingerstyle guitar solo showcase of the influential "Ross' Concert," played in the studio by Danna and Dean Parks. This was followed by the cult classic The Boondock Saints, which featured choral and orchestral elements mixed with electronica, along with "The Blood Of Cu Chulainn,” a Danna brothers' offering from their album, A Celtic Romance.[3]

Following that was Tim Blake Nelson's O, a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s Othello. Danna took the opportunity of the Shakespeare connection to employ a vielle and a viola da gamba in combination with dark orchestral colors, his first of many uses of early music instruments in his scores.[4] By the time O was released in theaters, Danna was at work again with Tim Blake Nelson on his World War II Holocaust drama The Grey Zone. Nelson’s desire for an onerous death camp atmosphere meant that there would be no score in the film until the final credits, where Danna composed a dissonant and powerful dirge, merging a small chamber group with Klezmer soloists, using an approach akin to modes of limited transposition to evoke both a terrible beauty and desolation.[5]

2001 brought forth the first of many collaborations with acclaimed filmmaker Brett Morgen on The Kid Stays in the Picture, a celebrated retelling of producer Robert Evans' book of the same title.

In 2003, Danna was in London working with The London Philharmonia on the large-scale score for The Gospel of John, a medley of which the Philharmonia performed in their summer concert at Royal Festival Hall.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse followed in 2004, earning Danna four SOCAN Awards for International Film Music, and then a reunion with brother Mychael on Terry Gilliam’s Tideland, their first time working together since their Celtic albums, seven years prior.

2006 and 2007 found Danna in Toronto, scoring the movie adaptation of the hit video game franchise Silent Hill for director Christophe Gans. Danna followed that with another Brett Morgen collaboration on Chicago 10, then legendary director Lord Richard Attenborough’s final film, Closing The Ring, and another collaboration with Mychael for Fracture, the psychological legal crime thriller starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.

The following year, the brothers went on to score Sony’s crime thriller Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel Jackson. The duo then collaborated with Terry Gilliam again for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which was nominated for Best Original Score for a Fantasy Film by the International Film Music Critics Awards. Danna's ongoing work with Brett Morgen brought forth Nimrod Nation, a 30-for-30 episode, and the acclaimed documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.

In 2014, Jeff and Mychael wrote the original music for the FX series Tyrant, earning them both a Hollywood Music in Media Award for the Main Title, as well as Emmy nominations for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) and Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, the same category for which they were previously Emmy-nominated for their work on Camelot in 2011.

In 2015, the brothers composed the score for Disney Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, which received a BMI Film and TV Award for Film Music, three SOCAN Awards, a nomination for Best Original Score for an Animated Film by the International Film Music Critics Award, and an Annie nomination for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production. More sibling collaborations followed, notably the original score for Warner Brothers' animated film Storks which won a BMI Film and TV Award for Film Music, and Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.

In 2017, Jeff and Mychael undertook scoring Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Breadwinner was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production, won the Best Original Music Award from the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France and won the Canadian Screen Award for Film Score of the Year. The brothers followed up that effort with Alias Grace for Netflix, for which they were Emmy nominated in 2018 and garnered a nomination for a Canadian Screen Award.

Returning to animation in 2018, Danna wrote the music for Guillermo del Toro’s animated science-fantasy series Tales of Arcadia, which includes the titles 3Below, Wizards, and Rise of the Titans for Netflix and produced by DreamWorks Animation.

Jeff and Mychael then worked together to score the animated feature The Addams Family, released in 2019, which earned a BMI Film & TV Award for Film Music, and Disney Pixar’s Oscar-nominated animated film Onward, which opened in theaters on March 6, 2020, for which they received an Annie nomination for Best Music for a Feature, a BMI Film & TV Award for Film Music, and an International Film Music Critics Award nomination for Best Original Score for an Animated Film. Following that, he and Mychael wrote the original score for the MGM feature The Addams Family 2, earning them a Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score for an Animated Film and a BMI Film & TV Award for Film Music.

2021and 2022 saw Danna working for HBO Max on the acclaimed series Julia, based on the life of iconic chef Julia Child,[6] and he reteamed with Mychael and Cartoon Saloon co-founder Nora Twomey for My Father’s Dragon. A reunion with Guillermo del Toro followed as Danna composed the music for the episodeThe Graveyard Rats in Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.[1]

Filmography

Film

1980s-1990s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1989	Cold Comfort	Vic Sarin	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
1998	At Sachem Farm	John Huddles	—
1999	The Boondock Saints	Troy Duffy	—
1999	New Blood	Michael Hurst	—

2000s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2001	Green Dragon	Timothy Lin Bui	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2001	O	Tim Blake Nelson	—
2001	Monsters, Inc.	Pete Docter	Additional music
2001	The Grey Zone	Tim Blake Nelson	—
2002	The Kid Stays in the Picture	Nanette Burstein Brett Morgen	—
2002	Easter	Richard Caliban	—
2003	Kart Racer	Stuart Gillard	—
2003	Spinning Boris	Roger Spottiswoode	—
2004	Resident Evil: Apocalypse	Alexander Witt	—
2005	Ripley Under Ground	Roger Spottiswoode	—
2005	Tideland	Terry Gilliam	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2006	Silent Hill	Christophe Gans	—
2007	Chicago 10	Brett Morgen	—
2007	Fracture	Gregory Hoblit	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2007	Closing the Ring	Richard Attenborough	—
2008	Lakeview Terrace	Neil LaBute	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2008	Finn on the Fly	Mark Jean	—
2009	The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day	Troy Duffy	—
2009	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus	Terry Gilliam	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2009	Formosa Betrayed	Adam Kane	—
2009	The Cry of the Owl	Jamie Thraves	—
2009	Leaves of Grass	Tim Blake Nelson	—

2010s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2010	The Last Rites of Ransom Pride	Tiller Russell	—
2011	Thin Ice	Jill Sprecher	—
2012	Silent Hill: Revelation	M. J. Bassett	—
2012	Erased	Philipp Stölzl	—
2015	Cobain: Montage of Heck	Brett Morgen	—
2015	The Good Dinosaur	Peter Sohn	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2015	Sanjay's Super Team	Sanjay Patel	Short film, co-composed with Mychael Danna
2015	Anesthesia	Tim Blake Nelson	—
2016	Newtown	Kim A. Snyder	Additional music
2016	Storks	Nicholas Stoller Doug Sweetland	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2016	Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk	Ang Lee
2017	The Breadwinner	Nora Twomey
2019	The Power of I	Steve Hickner Gary Trousdale	Short film, co-composed with Mychael Danna
2019	The Addams Family	Conrad Vernon Greg Tiernan	Co-composed with Mychael Danna

2020s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2020	Onward	Dan Scanlon	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2021	Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans	Johane Matte Francisco Ruiz Velasco Andrew Schmidt	—
2021	The Addams Family 2	Conrad Vernon Greg Tiernan	Co-composed with Mychael Danna

Television

Television films

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1992	Kung Fu: The Legend Continues	Jud Taylor	—
1998	My Own Country	Mira Nair	—
2000	Baby	Robert Allan Ackerman	—
2002	The Matthew Shepard Story	Roger Spottiswoode	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2003	Mafia Doctor	Alex Chapple	—
2003	Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids	Mike Fallows	—
2007	Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams	David Block	—

Television series

Year	Title	Creator(s)	Notes
1993-1996	Kung Fu: The Legend Continues	Ed Spielman	—
1991-1993	Tropical Heat	Sam Egan	—
1996-1997	Beverly Hills, 90210	Darren Star	—
2001	So Weird	Tom J. Astle	1 episode, "Thinkin' About Tomorrow"
2003	Kid Notorious	Brett Morgen Robert Evans Alan R. Cohen Alan Freedland	Theme by
2004-2006	Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends	David Kirk	—
2005	The Zula Patrol	Deb M. Manchester	—
2007	Nimrod Nation	Matthew Akers Jeff Fisher Erica Forstadt Christo Garcia Todd Lubin Benjamin Wolf	—
2008	Independent Lens	Brett Morgen	Episode: "Chicago 10" (Season 10, Episode 1)
2010	30 for 30	Bill Simmons Connor Schell	—
2010-2011	Babar and the Adventures of Badou	Michael Stokes	—
2011	Camelot	Michael Hirst Chris Chibnall	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2012-2014	Continuum	Simon Barry	—
2014-2016	Tyrant	Gideon Raff	Co-composed with Mychael Danna
2017	Alias Grace	Mary Harron Sarah Polley Margaret Atwood (based on the novel by)
2019	3Below: Tales of Arcadia	Guillermo Del Toro	—
2020	Wizards: Tales of Arcadia	Guillermo Del Toro Marc Guggenheim Aaron Waltke Chad Quandt	—
2022	Julia	Daniel Goldfarb	—

Video games

• Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia (2020)

Awards and nominations

Association	Year	Work	Category	Result	Notes	Ref.
Primetime Emmy Awards	2018	Alias Grace	Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score)	Nominated	Shared with Mychael Danna	[7]
	2015	Tyrant	Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)	Nominated
			Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music	Nominated
	2011	Camelot		Nominated
Annecy International Animated Film Festival	2018	The Breadwinner	Best Original Music for a Feature Film	Won		[8]
Annie Awards	2021	Onward	Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature	Nominated		[9]
	2018	The Breadwinner		Nominated		[10]
	2016	The Good Dinosaur		Nominated		[11]
BMI Film & TV Awards	2022	The Addams Family 2	Film Music	Won		[12]
	2020	Onward		Won		[13]
		The Addams Family		Won
	2017	Storks		Won
	2016	The Good Dinosaur		Won
Canadian Screen Awards	2018	The Breadwinner	Achievement in Music - Original Score	Won		[14]
		Alias Grace	Best Original Music, Fiction	Nominated
	2013	Continuum	Best Original Music Score for a Series	Nominated	For the episode, "A Stitch in Time"
Fright Meter Awards	2012	Silent Hill: Revelation	Best Score	Nominated	Shared with Akira Yamaoka	[15]
Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA)	2021	The Addams Family 2	Best Original Score - Animated Film	Won	Shared with Mychael Danna	[16]
	2014	Tyrant	Main Title - TV Show / Digital Series	Won
International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA)	2021	Onward	Best Original Score for an Animated Film	Nominated		[17]
	2018	Alias Grace	Best Original Score for Television	Nominated		[18]
	2016	The Good Dinosaur	Best Original Score for an Animated Film	Nominated		[19]
	2010	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus	Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction Film	Nominated		[20]
SOCAN Awards	2018	Storks	International Film Music Award	Won		[21]
			Achievement in Feature Film Music	Won
		The Good Dinosaur	International Film Music Award	Won
	2016	The Good Dinosaur	Achievement in Feature Film Music	Won
			Domestic Feature Film Award	Won
	2015	Erased		Won	—
	2011	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus	International Film Music Award	Won	Shared with Mychael Danna
	2009	Resident Evil: Apocalypse		Won	—
	2008			Won	—
		Fracture	Domestic Feature Film Award	Won	Shared with Mychael Danna
	2007	Resident Evil: Apocalypse	International Film Music Award	Won	—
	2006			Won	—

References

External links

• Official website
• Jeff Danna at IMDb
• Jeff Danna's channel on YouTube

На других языках

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[de] Jeff Danna

Jeffrey W. „Jeff“ Danna[1] (* 1964 in Burlington, Ontario) ist ein kanadischer Komponist und Gitarrist.

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- [en] Jeff Danna

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[ru] Данна, Джефф

Джефф Данна (англ. Jeff Danna) — канадский кинокомпозитор, специализирующийся на музыке к фильмам ужасов и триллерам. Автор музыки к фильмам «Воображариум доктора Парнаса» и «Сайлент Хилл». Брат композитора Майкла Данна, с которым плодотворно сотрудничает.

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