A student of the great composer Aaron Copeland as well as John Corigliano, Elliot earned both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in musical composition at the Manhattan School of Music. With compositions ranging from works for chamber and full orchestra to vocal compositions, few contemporary composers have a repitoire as diverse as that of Elliot Goldenthal. He has written for orchestra, theatre, ballet, and film.
Elliot has been commissioned to write several works. In 1988 he was commissioned to compose a piece for the celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday by ASCAP. The piece was called Shadow Play Scherzo and it was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra at Town Hall in New York City. That same year he was commissioned to write another piece by the Haydn-Mozart chamber Orchestra called Pastime Variations. Performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, its purpose was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Ebbets Field. Released in 1996, The Pacific Symphony Orchestra commissioned Fire Water Paper, a Vietnam Oratorio and large scale orchestral piece that was used for the 20th anniversary of the Vietnam War. The performance featured the cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma. When later performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra it received critical acclaim for its performances in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Elliot has had great success in the theater. He wrote two versions of Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, one in 1988 and the second in 1996. The first one earned Elliot an Obie Award. The revised version of 1996 however earned him even more critical acclaim as well as five Tony nominations and four Drama Desk nominations. The production was based on a short story by Horacio Quiroga and the Requiem Mass. His other works for theatre include The Transposed Heads, The King Stag, and Liberty's Taken. Most recently he wrote the music to a Broadway production ofThe Green Bird, based on the comic fable by Carlo Guzzi. He has also composed music for the Shakespearean plays The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In addition to those Shakespeare plays he was also commissioned by the American Ballet Theatre to compose a ballet for Othello. It debuted in 1997 at New York's Metropolitan Opera. The ballet was performed by the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and featured some of ballet's best: Desmond Richardson, Juse Manuel Carreno, Julie Kent, Susan Jaffe, and Sandra Brown.
Goldenthal is most known for his film scores. He received his first Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe nomination for his original score written for Interview with the Vampire. He then received the same nominations in 1996 for the Michael Collins score. During that same period he received two Grammy nominations for A Time to Kill and Batman Forever. In 1998 he won the L.A. Film Critics Award for Best Original Score for The Butcher Boy. In 2003 Elliot finally broke through at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes winning at both awards ceremonies for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for his score for Frida. Other movies he has written scores for include Titus, Fool's Fire, Drugstore Cowboy, Cobb, Alien 3, Batman & Robin, Sphere, and In Dreams. His most recent works are the scores for S.W.A.T., starring Colin Ferrell and Samuel L. Jackson, and The Good Thief, starring Nick Nolte and Tcheky Karyo.
