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Gabriel Yared (Arabic: جبرائيل يارد) (born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-French composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, his work in France included the scores for Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later began working with American film directors, winning an Oscar for his score for The English Patient and a nomination for The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.

In 2004, Yared's score to the movie Troy, with a song by Tanja Tzarovska, was rejected due to the poor reception received by an early draft in a test screening. It was replaced with one by James Horner.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Selected Filmography 3 Awards 4 Links

At the age of 7, his father sent Yared to an accordion teacher. Two years later he stopped his accordion lessons and started music theory and piano lessons. His piano teacher thought that he had no future in music.

Although he was not a natural pianist, he was interested in reading music.

At the age of 14, his piano teacher died, so he was to replace him as the organist of Saint Joseph University. He used the university’s library to read all the work of Bach, Schumann, and many others. This extensive reading inspired his first original composition, a piano waltz.

Yared gained a degree in Law. His formal musical education only began when he travelled to France in 1969, and attended the École Normale de Musique de Paris as a non-registered student. There he learned the rules of music composition from Henri Dutilleux.

At the end of 1971, he went to Brazil to visit his uncle. There, the president of the World Federation of light music festivals asked him to write a song to represent the Lebanese in the Rio de Janeiro Song Festival. His song won the first prize.

In Brazil, he kept on performing with his small orchestra. Yared maintains that to this day Brazil has greatly influenced his work.

He then went back to France, where he met with the Costa Brothers and collaborated with them. There, he wrote many orchestrations, and ended up with three thousand orchestrations in six years.

Not to be limited by orchestrating, he collaborated with Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour, Mireille Mathieu etc... He had collaborations with many musicians, and contributed to many radio and TV jingles, such as TF1 news jingles which he has created since 1980.

• Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) Music
• Betty Blue (1986) Music
• Beyond Therapy (1987) Music
• Camille Claudel (1989) Music
• Clean & Sober (1988) Music
• Gandahar (1988) Music (not in US dubbed version Light Years)
• Romero (1989) Music
• Vincent & Theo (1990) Music
• Tatie Danielle (1991) Music and theme song "The Complaint of the Old Bitch"
• The Lover (1992) Music
• Map of the Human Heart (1993) Music
• The English Patient (1996) Original Music
• City of Angels (1998) Music and Orchestrations
• Message in a Bottle (1999) Music and Orchestrations
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Music, Orchestrations and songs
• Autumn in New York (2000) Composed and Conductor
• The Next Best Thing (2000) Music, Conductor and Orchestrations
• Possession (2002) Composer, Conductor and Orchestrations
• Bon voyage (2003) Music
• Cold Mountain (2003) Composed and Orchestrations
• Sylvia (2003) Composer
• Shall We Dance? (2004) Music
• Das Leben der Anderen (2006) Music
• Breaking and Entering (2006) Music (with Underworld)

• Best Original Score (nominee): Cold Mountain (2003) by The Chicago Film Critics Association
• Best Score (nominee): Cold Mountain (2003) by Academy
• Best Score (nominee): Cold Mountain (2003) by Golden Globe
• Best Original Score (nominee): Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) by Academy
• Best Score (winner): The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) by Broadcast Film Critics Association
• Best Film Music (nominee): Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) by British Academy Awards
• Best Original Score (nominee): Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) by Golden Globe
• Best Dramatic Score (winner): English Patient (1996) by Academy
• Best Score (winner): The English Patient (1996) by Golden Globe
• Best Music (winner): L'Amant (1992) by French Academy of Cinema

• Official Site