James Horner

James Horner (born August 14 1953 in Los Angeles, California) is an American composer of orchestral music. He is noted for his effective integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of trad

James Horner (born August 14 1953 in Los Angeles, California) is an American composer of orchestral music. He is noted for his effective integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of traditional Irish (Celtic) musical elements. Despite Horner's prolific career and considerable commericial success, he remains a somewhat polarizing composer among fans of film music, due to accusations of self-plagiarism in his works.

Horner's early years were spent in London, where he attended the prestigious Royal College of Music. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, and eventually earned his masters and doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he ended his teaching of music theory at the UCLA and turned to film scoring.