Jonathan Goldstein

Jonathan Goldstein (27 September 1968 – 25 August 2019) was an English composer of music for film, television, advertising, theatre, and live events.

His work encompassed a range of contemporary classical styles with orchestral, jazz, electro-acoustic, and world influences.

Goldstein died in a light-plane crash in the Alps along with his wife and young child.

Goldstein's father, who was Jewish, was a West End conductor.

He began composing in school, and studied music at the University of Birmingham.

Goldstein began his career in theatre, at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre, working with acclaimed directors including Trevor Nunn and Sir Peter Hall.

Later, he began his screen career assisting on numerous important film score orchestrations including Cape Fear, directed by Martin Scorsese, and landmark re-orchestrations of classic film scores including Taxi Driver, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

His debut classical album, Cyclorama, was released worldwide to critical acclaim on the Brilliant Classics label and performed by The Balanescu Quartet and ensemble.

Goldstein was Chairman of PCAM, the Society for Producers and Composers of Applied Music from 2005-2012.

In television, Goldstein composed music for several BBC productions including Nunn's adaptation of Othello, David Thacker's production of Ibsen's A Doll's House with Guy Woolfenden, the prize-winning documentary series Eutopia: The United States of Europe filmed in 22 countries, and Playing The Wife, starring Derek Jacobi, for BBC Radio.

He was also nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 2007, for his score to the BBC/HBO film of Primo, directed by Richard Wilson featuring the contemporary celloist, Nicholas Holland, who has recorded with Peter Gabriel and David Byrne.

In 2010, he created music for the Little Crackers comedy series starring Meera Syal, broadcast in 3D on Sky and Sky1.

Goldstein composed, produced and conducted scores for major events including work for Microsoft, British Telecom, Frankfurt Motor Show, Madame Tussaud's, a suite for the Bentley Experience at the Volkswagen Theme Park, Autostadt, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates installation at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, featuring the classical vocalist Jeremy Avis reedist Belinda Sykes and percussionist Paul Clarvis.

His classical work Circles was shortlisted for performance by the Society for the Promotion of New Music, and premiered at St John’s Smith Square, London, performed by Music Projects London, conducted by Richard Bernas, featuring the oboe soloist Christopher Redgate.

The concert also featured works by composers Judith Weir and Sadie Harrison.

The documentary short Manuel de los Santos, directed by Peter Montgomery, which featured a score by Goldstein, won the Grand Prize at the International Arnold Sports Film Festival in 2012.

In advertising, Goldstein worked for agencies in the UK including Saatchi & Saatchi, M&C Saatchi, Ogilvy, Publicis, Euro RSCG, Leo Burnett, DDB UK, CHI & Partners, Lowe, MCBD and WCRS, and in the USA for Droga5 and Publicis, composing music for television and cinema commercials on behalf of many national and international brands, which have been broadcast globally.

These included American Airlines, American Express, BMW, Ford, IG Index, Intel, ITV, Kronenbourg, Lexus, NatWest, Nokia, British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), Sony, T-Mobile, Tesco, Toyota, UBS AG, Visa, Volkswagen and Zurich.

Goldstein won a D&AD for Outstanding Use of Music, an IVCA Award for Best Music and two British Television Advertising Awards (BTA) Craft Awards for Best Original Music, as well as receiving nominations for two further BTA Craft awards.

In 2012, Goldstein's debut classical album, Cyclorama, was released worldwide by Brilliant Classics.

The music was performed by the Balanescu Quartet, founded by the violinist Alexander Bălănescu, and an ensemble of soloists including James Pearson, a soloist with the Hallé, Philharmonia and BBC Concert Orchestras and Artistic Director of the London jazz club Ronnie Scott's, whose collaborations include Paul McCartney and Wynton Marsalis.

The recording also featured the soprano Grace Davidson, who has performed with the Early Music groups The Sixteen, and Tenebrae, as well as on soundtracks such as Hans Zimmer's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

The album, which consists of a mix of contemporary classical idioms which gradually present an unfolding story, like a cyclorama (the panoramic backdrop used in film and theatre), was recorded at the Church of Saint Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, noted for its haunting acoustics.

The church has been the chosen venue for many important recordings of film and concert music including the Chandos Records re-recordings of William Walton’s scores for Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare films, performed by The Orchestra and Chorus of The Academy of St Martin in the Fields and conducted by Neville Marriner, on which Goldstein worked as an assistant orchestrator.

In 2013, his Magical Moments reached No.1 in the Official UK Classical Charts, where it stayed for three weeks over Christmas, ahead of J. S. Bach.

In his early career, Goldstein assisted the film music orchestrator Christopher Palmer, on the soundtrack orchestrations for Cape Fear, directed by Martin Scorsese, and re-recordings of classic film scores including Bernard Herrmann's music for Scorsese's Taxi Driver performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Elmer Bernstein.

He subsequently scored several shorts including the BAFTA-nominated Candy Bar Kid which was screened at more than 100 festivals worldwide, and the BAFTA-nominated Sunny Spells, winner of an International Silver Heron award.

Goldstein married Hannah Marcinowicz, a saxophonist, in 2016.

They and their 7-month-old daughter Saskia died on 25 August 2019 when their Piper plane crashed above the Simplon Pass on a flight from Switzerland to Italy.

Swiss search and rescue units found no survivors; all three were presumed to have died immediately upon impact.

Awarded

Nominated

Advertising

Film features

Film shorts

Television and radio

Theatre (composer)

Theatre (other)

Events

Video