Marius de Vries

Composer and Arranger

Marius de Vries has been involved in some of the most culture-defining recordings and soundtracks of the past two decades, and has won two BAFTAs and an Ivor Novello award for his film composition work, as well as four Grammy nominations for soundtrack and record production. Beginning his musical career playing keyboards for the English eighties pop-soul band The Blow Monkeys, he has since written, arranged,and produced across a wide range of styles and genres for Madonna, Bjork, Rufus Wainwright, Neil Finn, Annie Lennox, Bebel Gilberto, David Gray, P.J Harvey, U2, Massive Attack, Elbow, Teddy Thompson and Josh Groban, amongst many others.

His film music career took off in the mid-nineties – his collaboration with Nellee Hooper and Craig Armstrong on the soundtrack and score for Baz Luhrmann’sRomeo & Julietwon Marius the first of his two BAFTAs. A few years later, he music-directed the groundbreakingMoulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, resulting in another Grammy nomination, a second BAFTA, and numerous other awards. Marius also composed the score for Stephan (Priscilla Queen of The Desert)Elliot’s surreal thrillerThe Eye of the Beholder, and last year’sjazz-age period comedyEasy Virtue. In the world of Musical Theatre, Marius has worked several times with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with his co-production of the cast album for A.R Rahman’sBombay Dreams, and his production and orchestration work on this year’s sequel toThe Phantom of the Opera – Love Never Dies, as well as producing the cast album for Richard Thomas’ hugely successful (and equally controversial) West End comedy hitJerry Springer The Opera.

In early 2008 Marius created an hour-long contemporary dance piece,Squaremap of Q4, for the award-winning Spanish choreographer Rafael Bonachela; this premiered at the South Bank in London. He has also recently completed work on theeclectic Chinese singer Sa Ding Ding’s second album for Universal Records,Harmony, recorded in Beijing and mixed in London. 2010 has seen Marius contributing score and song productions to Matthew Vaughn’s irreverent superhero filmKick-Ass, and Zack Snyder’s music-driven action fantasySucker Punch, as well as co-producing an LP with and for Robbie Robertson, featuring guests Eric Clapton. Steve Winwood, Tom Morello and others.