Mychael Danna

Biography

Mychael Danna (born September 20, 1958) is a Canadian composer of film and television scores. He won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Original Score for Life of Pi. He has also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score) in his work on the miniseries World Without End.

Personal life

Danna's family moved to Burlington, Ontario, when he was four weeks old. He is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He studied music composition at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. He has two children with his wife, Aparna.

Career

Danna served for five years as composer-in-residence at the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto (1987–1992). Works for dance include music for Dead Souls (Carbone Quatorze Dance Company, directed by Gilles Maheu 1996), and a score for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Gita Govinda (2001) based on the 1000-year-old classical Gita Govinda, with choreographer Nina Menon. In June 2014, Danna was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Toronto, for his career achievements in the field of music.
He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won five times for Achievement in Music - Original Score. Danna is recognized as one of the pioneers of combining non-Western sound sources with orchestral and electronic minimalism in the world of film music. This reputation has led him to work with such directors as Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, Terry Gilliam, Scott Hicks, Ang Lee, Gillies MacKinnon, James Mangold, Mira Nair, Billy Ray, Joel Schumacher, and Denzel Washington. His soundtrack for Ang Lee's Life of Pi×Life of Pi16 November 2012 · Album · SoundtrackSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 28 tracks1Pi's Lullaby3:422Piscine Molitor Patel3:393Pondicherry1:124Meeting Krishna1:515Christ in the Mountains1:136Thank you Vishnu for Introducing me to Christ0:557Richard Parker0:548Appa's Lesson1:079Anandi0:5510Leaving India1:2011The Deepest Spot on Earth0:4812Tsimtsum2:4913Death of the Zebra0:3314First Night, First Day3:4515Set Your House in Order2:1016Skinny Vegetarian Boy2:1617Pi and Richard Parker2:1418The Whale2:0219Flying Fish0:5020Tiger Training1:2221Orphans1:3622Tiger Vision4:3123God Storm3:4224I'm Ready now3:2125The Island1:5926Back to the World8:2027The Second Story4:0228Which Story do you Prefer?2:05 earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for Pi's Lullaby.
Other films include Dan Scanlon's Onward, Mimi Leder's On the Basis of Sex, Nora Twomey's The Breadwinner, Bennett Miller's Capote and Moneyball and Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer.
On September 30, 2021, Danna received a Career Achievement Award from the Zurich Film Festival.