Jonny Greenwood

Biography

Jonny Greenwood is best known as the lead guitarist of the band Radiohead.

To date he has penned five “classical” works: smear (two ondes martenots and ensemble); Popcorn Superhet Receiver (string orchestra), Doghouse (string trio and large orchestra), 48 Responses to Polymorphia (48 strings) and Water (chamber orchestra).

Popcorn Superhet Receiver was written as part of his fruitful residency with the BBC Concert Orchestra.  Sections of the score were later worked into his soundtrack for the Oscar-winning Paul Thomas Anderson film There Will Be Blood (2007) – the soundtrack itself controversially declared ineligible for an Oscar as “the majority of the music was not composed specifically for the film.”  However, Greenwood went on to scoop Best Film Score award at the 2007 Evening Standard British Film Awards, and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Composer by the Broadcast Film Critics Association of the USA. Subsequent film credits include Tran Anh Hung’s Norwegian Wood, based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, and the Paul Thomas Anderson films The Master and Inherent Vice.

Radiohead albums have featured Greenwood's string and brass arrangements, and he has composed for orchestras including the London Contemporary Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Tags

Oxford
United Kingdom