David Newman is one of today’s most accomplished creators of music for film. In his 30-year career, he has scored more than 110 films, ranging from War of the Roses, Matilda, Bowfinger and Heathers to the more recent Girls Trip, Night School and Serenity. His music has brought to life the critically acclaimed dramas Brokedown Palace and Hoffa; comedies such as Galaxy Quest and Throw Momma from the Train, and award-winning animated films Ice Age, The Brave Little Toaster and Anastasia, for which he received an Oscar nomination for best score.
In 2021, after a decade of conducting live music-to-film concerts for the classic West Side Story, Newman arranged the score for Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical.
As a highly sought-after conductor, Newman appears with leading orchestras throughout the world, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.
In 2020, he conducted the world premiere of his score for the film Galaxy Quest live with the San Diego Symphony during Comic-Con and in 2021, he was invited by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles to conduct its inaugural concerts of The Wizard of Oz, live to picture, with the American Youth Symphony.
As the son of nine-time Oscar-winning composer Alfred Newman, Newman has had a lifelong passion for the creation and conducting of music. An active composer for the concert hall, he has written works that have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony and Long Beach Symphony, as well as at the Ravinia Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival. He also composed a violin-orchestra suite for violinist Sarah Chang, based on the songs from West Side Story.
Passionate about nurturing the next generation of musicians, Newman serves on the board of the American Youth Symphony, a pre-professional orchestra based in Los Angeles. In 2010, he served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival in the film scoring program.
