Composer John Powell. Photo by Rebecca Morellato.
In Tuesday’s (9/2) ABC News (Australia), Virginia Trioli writes, “Film composer John Powell spoke to me on the eve of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performing a live music screening of the Academy Award-nominated animation classic, How to Train Your Dragon, featuring Powell’s electrifying score, which includes a full orchestra, a choral section, old Celtic instruments and enough hard work by the brass section to keep animated dragons in flight for one and a half hours. Both the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the MSO have announced that they will perform the second movie in the franchise, How to Train Your Dragon 2, in 2026. Live film performances have now become so popular for Australian orchestras that they sell out upon announcement. At the three packed Melbourne events in July, it was especially moving to see every kind of audience member excitedly at a classical music performance … Next year, the MSO will have four performances of the film…. As a child, [Powell] played the violin and viola, then studied the former at the Trinity College of Music, central London…. He moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and scored his first major film, Face/Off, going on to compose for films such as the Bourne and Happy Feet series, Shrek and Wicked.”
