Philip Sheppard (musician)
Philip Sheppard is an English composer, producer, cellist, inventor, public speaker, philanthropist, professor at the Royal Academy of Music and creative innovator. He has composed more than 60 film, television and theatrical scores including ' and the ' behind the scenes Comic Con trailer. Sheppard was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a member of the Music Class of 2017. Sheppard has recorded arrangements of all the world's 205 national anthems for the 2012 Olympics.
Early life
Sheppard trained in cello and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, during which time he specialised in contemporary music. He worked closely with Hans Werner Henze, Sir Michael Tippett and Luciano Berio during this time as a founding member of the Kreutzer String Quartet. Whilst a student, Sheppard made weekly appearances at the Spitz nightclub, playing entirely improvised concerts, sometimes featuring his Piano Quintet – formed with Keith Tippett. He collaborated with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who encouraged him to move away from a conventional musical environment, and pursue his composition. He went on to pioneer electro-acoustic improvisation joining the Smith Quartet and appearing regularly with the London Sinfonietta. After completing a fellowship, he was made a professor at the Royal Academy of Music where he is now a senior lecturer.Career
Film soundtracks
Sheppard's first orchestral soundtrack was commissioned in 2007 for the documentary feature, In the Shadow of the Moon, which won major awards at the Boulder, Florida, Indianapolis and Sedona film festivals, as well as the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The soundtrack was released on the Lakeshore records imprint.In 2008 with members of UNKLE he arranged and performed solo cello on the remix of The X-Files theme music for the end titles of 'X-Files I Want to Believe'. Also, in 2008, Sheppard composed the music for the South Korean film, Dream .
His next major commission was the soundtrack for 'Sergio' directed by Greg Barker which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2010, Sheppard composed the score for the documentary film, The Tillman Story, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.
In 2011, Sheppard composed the soundtrack for 2 documentaries that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival: The Flaw directed by British filmmaker David Sington, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema - Documentary and Bobby Fischer Against the World, directed by Liz Garbus. Also, in 2011, his album Cloud Songs was used for the film First Orbit, a real-time recreation of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering first orbit, shot entirely in space from on board the International Space Station and combined with Yuri Gagarin's original voice recordings to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the flight of Vostok 1.
In 2012, Sheppard composed the music for the short film The Long Journey Home and also worked again with film-maker Liz Garbus on the documentary film Love, Marilyn starring Elizabeth Banks, Adrien Brody, Glen Close, Uma Thurman and Viola Davis.
In 2013, Sheppard once again collaborated with director Greg Barker and producer John Battsek to compose the score for the Emmy winning documentary, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.
In 2014, Sheppard composed the score for 3 documentary films, We Are the Giant, 1971, and The Human Face of Big Data. Sheppard's collaborations with director Greg Barker and producer John Battsek continued with We Are The Giant, a documentary film about the Arab Spring and which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. 1971, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 18 April 2014 and was nominated for the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature.
In 2015, Sheppard collaborated with professional climber, mountaineer, skier, director and photographer, Jimmy Chin and professional climber, mountaineer and author Conrad Anker, on the award-winning documentary adventure film, Meru. Twelve of the tracks from the film's soundtrack were composed by Sheppard. Meru premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Documentary and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. In 2015, Sheppard also composed the original score for the documentaries Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science and The Fear of 13 directed by David Sington and which was nominated for the Grierson Award for Documentary Film at the 2015 London Film Festival.
In 2016, Sheppard created the original score for 3 documentary films: Keep Quiet, which was nominated for the Knight Documentary Achievement Award at the 2012 Miami Film Festival, and The University. Keep Quiet, premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival where it was nominated for the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature. and The University was awarded Best Documentary Film at the 2016 L.A. Raw Science Film Festival.
In 2017, Sheppard teamed up again with director Greg Barker and producer John Battsek to release, The Final Year , which premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, and Legion of Brothers which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Sheppard also composed the original score for Chosen , starring Harvey Keitel. In 2018, Sheppard collaborated again with director David Sington, who he worked with on In the Shadow of the Moon, on the Netflix original documentary, Mercury 13, which premiered at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival.
Television scores
In 2008, Sheppard Philip composed the music for the 4 part TV series documentary, Moon Machines: The Lunar Module, The Navigation Computer, The Command Module and The Saturn V Rocket. In 2009, Sheppard also wrote a set of pieces for Viol Consort that formed the soundtrack for Dr. David Starkey's series on Henry VIII. It also featured Scottish singer Dot Allison. Also in 2009, Sheppard composed the music for the TV movie, Juliette Binoche: Sketches for a Portrait. In 2010, Sheppard composed the music for and was the music producer for three episodes of the PBS TV series, God In America: Composer: Soul of a Nation/Of God and Caesar, A Nation Reborn/A New Light, A New Adam/A New Eden. Sheppard also composed the music for the National Geographic TV documentary Inside the Milky Way, and the BBC TV documentary, Little Ships which marked the 70th anniversary of Dunkirk. In 2012, Sheppard composed the music for one episode of The Churchills: The Choice. Sheppard also created the soundtrack for the PBS TV documentary Secrets of the Sun:Nova.In 2013, Sheppard created the soundtrack for The Fantastic Mr. Feynman, a TV documentary on the life and work of Nobel prize-winning physicist, Richard Feynman. In 2014, Sheppard wrote the music for the BBC series Human Universe presented by Brian Cox and for the TV documentary, A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY. For the Rugby World Cup in 2015, Sheppard composed the piece, This is Rugby, which was used as the theme music and for the players’ entrance.
Video game and apps
Sheppard composed the music for the virtual reality video game, Kitty Nigiri. In 2018, Sheppard composed the score for the character, Kara, in Quantic Dream's video game .Solo albums and collaborations
Sheppard's early solo albums, 'The Glass Cathedral' and 'The Diver in the Crypt', featured new compositions devised for site-specific performances. The tracks feature a specially commissioned electric cello that has become a cornerstone of many of Sheppard's compositions. The albums attracted the attention of Scott Walker, who invited him to play at his Southbank Centre Meltdown Festival. They collaborated again on Pulp's album 'We Love Life' with Jarvis Cocker and after that on Walker's critically acclaimed album 'The Drift'. He has also arranged songs for Jarvis Cocker's solo album 'Jarvis', David Bowie and Suzanne Vega.Sheppard released Somewhere Along the Edge in September 2016. It was his first studio album away from specific movie soundtracks since The Diver in the Crypt. “Each track is dedicated to someone who lives fully at the edge of life -whether explorers, artists, travelers or thinkers.” Sheppard regularly collaborates with James Lavelle and UNKLE. In 2008, they wrote and produced the album 'End Titles....Stories for Film' following the success of the recent album 'War Stories'. In 2017, Sheppard collaborated again with Lavelle on UNKLE's fifth studio album.
In 2017, Sheppard collaborated with Odesza on their album, A Moment Apart, which was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album and the single “Line of Sight” featuring WYNNE & Mansionair was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards A Moment Apart. Sheppard is featured on the strings for A Moment Apart and Just A Memory. In 2018 Sheppard released his sophomore solo orchestral album, Fall From Earth, on June 22, 2018.
Live event and stage production
Sheppard has produced the music for two BBC TV live events; The Manchester Passion in 2006 and The Liverpool Nativity in 2007. These have won numerous awards, including the BBC award for Best Music Production of the Year, which was awarded to Sheppard, together with the writer Stephen Powell.Sheppard has had a long and fruitful professional relationship with Akram Khan. He first joined Akram as an improvising cellist in the Kathak projects 'Third Catalogue' and 'Ronin', collaborating with Hanif Kureishi and the AK Company for 'The God of Small Tales'. In 2006, Sheppard was commissioned to write 'Sacred Monsters' for Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem. He toured with the production until the summer of 2007, his final performance being at the Herod Atticus theatre in the shadow of the Parthenon. In 2008, Sheppard was commissioned to compose the score for a new Akram Khan collaboration featuring Juliette Binoche. The production, In-I, staged at the National Theatre in London featured design by Anish Kapoor.
Sheppard wrote and produced music for the Olympic Handover Ceremony, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This marks the point when the Olympic flag passes to London in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The sequence begins with the orchestral work 'This is London' performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, and leads to an arrangement of 'Whole Lotta Love' performed by Jimmy Page, Leona Lewis and the London Symphony orchestra. This version of the song was co-produced by Steve Robson, Jimmy Page, Sheppard and Leona Lewis.
In 2009, Sheppard performed in 5 performances of the TV series, BBC Proms: Prom 9: Elgar Anniversary, Prom 12: 1934, Prom 38: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Prom 59: Tonhalle Orchestra, Prom 64: Jurowski & London Philharmonic. For the 2012 London Olympics 2012 Summer Olympics, Sheppard conducted, rearranged and edited all 205 national anthems for the winners’ ceremonies. The national anthems were recorded with The London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios and took 52 recording hours. In 2016, Sheppard, in collaboration with James Lavelle of UNKLE, co-produced Daydreaming With Stanley Kubrick , an audio-visual show set in Somerset House against visuals from Stanley Kubrick's various works. In 2017, Sheppard performed live at Facebook Headquarters. In 2018, Sheppard performed at the HATCH Global Impact Series with International Human Rights Attorney Kimberley Motley, musician KT Tunstall, spoken word artist Steve Connell, and Paul Durham to raise awareness for the Identity Project.
Innovation
In March 2015, Sheppard released the game Compose Yourself through ThinkFun, a game that enables players to build their own symphonic works using a computer algorithm and a deck of cards.Keynote speaking
Sheppard has delivered keynotes on creative innovation, intersection of music and data, the innate musical ability within each person, and other topics that connect music to creativity, tech and introspection in conferences around the globe such as C2MTL, e.g. conference, Business Innovation Factory, and The How To Academy.Philanthropy
Sheppard previously served on the Executive Board of HATCH, a 501 founded in 2004. Sheppard also speaks and performs at various HATCH events including, the annual Big Sky HATCH Experience and HATCHEdu. In December 2015, Sheppard performed at the Eiffel Tower on the opening night of the Paris Climate Change Summit, COP21, to start 1 Heart 1 Tree's effort to re-forest conflict and war zones. The performance and virtual reforestation installation were live extensions of the 1 Heart 1 Tree app that focuses on climate change. The music used by the app and during the Eiffel Tower 3D projections are from Sheppard's album, Strange News from Another Star.In 2015, Sheppard co-founded the HATCH Ostinato Project, whose mission is to empower students to realize that they can compose music by enabling them to experience original, fully realized sounds. The program matches composers and professionals with schools and music classes to allow for collaboration on music creation, resulting in professional music production. Sheppard has contributed his music to several films, such as Josie’s LaLa Land, an animated film about a fourteen year old's battle against leukemia, A Cow Can Change Everything, a short film about the story of families in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda and the support they received from the Gates Foundation, and A Dangerous Journey, an animated film about the exploitation, abuse and degradation of children in Africa. Sheppard has also contributed his music to such organizations as PeaceLove Storytellers, MyCounterpane, and the BBC Natural History Unit.
Awards, nominations and achievements
| Year | Nominations | Notes |
| 2007 | International Film Music Critics Award | Best Original Score for a Documentary Feature Film for In the Shadow of the Moon |
| 2017 | Grammy Award | Best Dance/Electronic Album for A Moment Apart |
| 2017 | - | - |
| Year | Achievements | Notes |
| 2010 | Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music | limited to 300 former Academy students, and awarded to those musicians who have distinguished themselves within the profession |
| 2015 | Top 100 Creatives by Origin Magazine | Named one of Top 100 Creatives by Origin Magazine |
| 2017 | Inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | Class of 2017 |
Discography
Solo Albums and Collaborations| Year | Album Name | Notes |
| 1996 | Steve Beresford: Cue Sheets II | Cello soloist |
| 1997 | Tippet: String Quartet Nos. 3& 5 | Cello soloist |
| 1997 | Upon Silence | Collaborator |
| 1997 | Tippet: String Quartet Nos. 1, 2 & 4 | Cello soloist |
| 1998 | Quotation of Dream | Collaborator |
| 1999 | Silencio | Cello soloist |
| 1999 | The Glass Cathedral | Self-released album |
| 2000 | Linuckea | Cello soloist |
| 2000 | The Diver in the Crypt | Self-released album |
| 2000 | Hot | Cello soloist |
| 2001 | Regeneration | Cello soloist |
| 2001 | We Love Life | Cello soloist |
| 2002 | David Bowie Heathen | Sheppard worked on a trans-Atlantic collaboration with David Bowie on the track Everyone Says Hi from Bowie's album, Heathen, which sampled his electric cello. Sheppard played 40 cellos, arranged and recorded the strings for the track. |
| 2002 | Joby Talbot:The Dying Swan | Soloist on the electric cello and cello |
| 2003 | Sound of the Underground | Soloist and string arranger |
| 2003 | Never, Never, Land | Cello soloist and electric cello. |
| 2004 | Colour The Small One | Collaborator |
| 2004 | Global Underground: Romania #26 | Cello Soloist |
| 2004 | Cello soloist and string arranger which is featured in. | |
| 2005 | HAL | Soloist and Strings arranger |
| 2005 | The Story Goes... | String arranger |
| 2006 | O Jerusalem | Soloist on the electric cello |
| 2006 | Poison Sweet Madeira | Cello soloist |
| 2006 | Journey South | String arranger |
| 2006 | The Drift | Orchestrator,conductor,and soloist on the cello |
| 2006 | Undiscovered | String arranger |
| 2006 | Stay Under The Stars | Cello soloist |
| 2006 | For You | String arranger |
| 2006 | Jarvis | Arranger of vocals, choir and strings |
| 2006 | Ali in the Jungle - The Hours | Sheppard was a member of Brit Rock band The Hours and orchestrated many of the band's songs. |
| 2007 | In the Shadow of the Moon | Composer |
| 2007 | Narcissus Road | Cello soloist, string arranger, conductor |
| 2007 | And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? | Cello soloist |
| 2007 | War Stories | Collaborator |
| 2007 | Beauty and Crime | Collaborator |
| 2007 | Rebel Without a Cause / East of Eden | Collaborator |
| 2007 | Run | Soloist |
| 2008 | Moon Machines | Composer |
| 2008 | Jack Mcmanus – Bang on the Piano | String arranger |
| 2008 | The Circus | Cello soloist |
| 2008 | X-Files: I Want to Believe | Sheppard together with members of UNKLE, arranged and performed solo cello on the remix of The X-Files theme music for the end titles of the 2008 film ‘X-Files I Want to Believe’. |
| 2008 | End Titles…Stories for Film | Composer and string arranger |
| 2008 | Unkle End Titles redux | Collaborator |
| 2009 | Sergio | Composer |
| 2009 | GU37: Bangkok | Composer |
| 2009 | We Fell To Earth | Electric cello soloist |
| 2010 | A Tillman Story | Composer |
| 2010 | Where Did the Night Fall | Collaborator |
| 2011 | Bobby Fischer Against the World | Composer |
| 2011 | Park Bench Theories | Cello soloist |
| 2011 | L’Un N’Empeche Pas l’Ature | Arranger |
| 2012 | Express Tracks | Composer |
| 2012 | Love, Marilyn | Composer |
| 2013 | ...Like Clockwork - Queens of the Stone Age | Collaborator |
| 2013 | These New Puritans Field of Reeds | Composer |
| 2013 | A Color Map of the Sun | Orchestrator and string arranger |
| 2015 | Strange News From Another Star | Self- Released EP |
| 2015 | The Blue Notebooks | Cello soloist |
| 2015 | Rugby World Cup | Composer |
| 2015 | Naples #G4U1 | Composer, cello soloist, and string arranger |
| 2016 | Keep Quiet | Composer |
| 2016 | Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick | Collaborator and co-producer |
| 2016 | Retrospective | Cello soloist |
| 2016 | Somewhere Along The Edge | Self-released album |
| 2016 | Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan | Composer |
| 2017 | Legion of Brothers | Composer |
| 2017 | Max Richter : On the Nature of Daylight | Cello soloist in Max Richter's track, On the Nature of Daylight, which is featured in both the opening and closing sequences of the sci-fi film, Arrival |
| 2017 | Chosen | Composer |
| 2017 | Unkle The Road | Composer, cello soloist |
| 2018 | Fall From Earth | Self-released album |