Howard Shore

Howard Shore may not be a household name, but chances are you've heard his music. If you've seen "The Silence of the Lambs," "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Ed Wood, "Nobody's Fool," "Gangs of New York," or have been swept away by the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, then you've heard a sampling of Shore's compositions. In fact, Shore won an Academy Award for his score for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Shore was born in 1946 to a Jewish family in Toronto, Canada. After studying music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he joined the avant-garde rock band Lighthouse, which led to his becoming the composer for magician Doug Henning's show, "Spellbound."

Among his circle of friends was a young comedy writer named Lorne Michaels, so it came as no surprise to anyone when Michaels tapped Shore to become SNL's first musical director, a position he retained for a memorable five years.

During this period, Shore often appeared on stage in such classic bits as the All-Nurse Band and the All-Bee Band. He even suggested the name "The Blues Brothers" to John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. At the same time, he began working as a film composer, most notably pairing with director David Cronenberg - Shore would go on to score all of Cronenberg's films except "The Dead Zone."

Shore continues to be a much in-demand composer and has an extremely busy slate of projects ahead, including an opera based on David Cronenberg's adaptation of the movie, "The Fly."

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