He is a conductor and composer born in Los Angeles, California who is the son of the film composer and nine-time Academy Award winner, Alfred Newman, the brother of Academy Award nominated composer, Thomas Newman, the nephew of the 11 time Academy Award winning film music conductor, Lionel Newman, and the cousin of the multi-award winning composer, Randy Newman.
He studied violin and conducting at the University of Southern California and his original intentions were to be a classical conductor.
After finishing his education he worked as a studio musician and writer of scores for industrial films and he moved on to become a conductor for orchestras that included the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and National Orchestra of Belgium.
He started writing for film in the 1980s and worked on releases such as Critters and Vendetta. For 4 years, from 1987, he wanted to raise funds and awareness of film music and conducted concerts and ran workshops as a musical director of the Sundance Institute. His involvement with older film scores and music saw him composing a new accompaniment for the 1927 silent film Sunrise and reconstructing the score of classics including The Wizard of Oz. He continued with composing for movies, mainly comedies, and his numerous film scores include Throw Momma From the Train, The Mighty Ducks, The Flintstones, The Cat in the Hat, Ice Age and the Bill and Ted films.
In 1997 he received an Academy Award nomination for the original music score for the animation of Anastasia.
He has been the conductor of the RSO Vienna Orchestra at the TV and radio broadcast Hollywood in Vienna every year since 2012.
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Recordings
Christmas Carol, A – Suite (Richard Addinsell)
Telarc 89408 88012 (CD: It’s A Wonderful Life/A Christmas Carol/Miracle on 34th Street)
Sources:
- http://www.hollywood.com/celebritydetail/David_Newman/1114233
- http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0628056/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Newman_(composer)