Gabriel Yared
Biography
Gabriel Yared (born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-French composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Yared scored the French films Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later worked on English-language films, particularly those directed by Anthony Minghella. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award for his work on The English Patient (1996) and was nominated for both The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003). When Yared was 7, his father sent him to an accordion teacher. Two years later Yared stopped his accordion lessons and started music theory and piano lessons. Although he was not necessarily a gifted pianist, Yared was interested in reading music. When Yared was 14, his piano teacher died and Yared replaced him as the organist of Université Saint-Joseph. Yared used the university's library to read the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, and many other composers. This extensive reading inspired his first original composition, a piano waltz. Yared gained a degree in law and did not formally study music at the university level until he traveled to France in 1969 to attend the École Normale de Musique de Paris as a non-registered student. There he learned the rules of music composition from Henri Dutilleux. At the end of 1971, Yared went to Brazil to visit his uncle and was asked by the president of the World Federation of Light Music Festivals to write a song to represent the Lebanese in the Rio de Janeiro Song Festival. The song he composed went on to win first prize. While in Brazil, he also performed with a small orchestra. Yared subsequently said that his time in Brazil greatly influenced his work. In 1975, he arranged the album Minacantalucio for the popular Italian singer Mina. He then went back to France, where he met and collaborated with the Costa Brothers, Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour, Mireille Mathieu, and numerous other musicians. This was a prolific period for the composer and he wrote nearly 3,000 pieces over a span of about six years. His contributions included a number of radio and TV jingles, such as TF1 news jingles and an episode on the series In the Tracks of. Yared is best known for his collaborations with the late Anthony Minghella. His first collaboration with Minghella was the 1996 film The English Patient, which was highly acclaimed and won him an Oscar for Best Original Score. He composed the scores for all of Minghella's subsequent films and the music for the television series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, co-created by Minghella and Richard Curtis. Aside from his work with Minghella, Yared scored a number of other films, including Betty Blue (1986), Map of the Human Heart (1992), City of Angels (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), Autumn in New York (2000), The Next Best Thing (2000), Possession (2002), and Bon Voyage (2003). He had a notable collaboration with René Laloux in the late 1980es on Gandahar and How Wang-fo was saved produced at the SEK Studio in North Korea. Cassandra Clare reported in August 2012 that Yared was tapped to compose the score for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. However, he was eventually replaced on the project by Atli Örvarsson. ... Source: Article "Gabriel Yared" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For & Full Filmography13 Titles
Drama Series - 1972, 16 episodes • as Self
Le Grand Échiquier is a French variety television program created and presented by Jacques Chancel. It aired at 8:30 pm on the first channel of the ORTF from January 12, 1972 to July 12, 1972, then on the second color channel of the ORTF from September 1972 to December 1974, and finally on Antenne 2 from January 1975 to December 21, 1989. The program returned to France 2 on December 20, 2018 and is hosted by Anne-Sophie Lapix.
Drama Series - 1975, 16 episodes • as Self
A French variety show.
Drama Series - 1985, 16 episodes • as Self
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Self
My Way is more than a song, it's a major score that has crossed the boundaries of eras and generations. An anthem that has become a part of ourselves and of music history. My Way is one of the most covered songs in the world, from Sid Vicious to Tom Jones, from Nina Simone to Pavarotti. Yet many people are unaware that it was conceived in France, by the pool of Claude François' private hotel, in the summer of 1967, and that a succession of chance encounters and sleepless nights guided it across the Atlantic to the man who was to make it a legend. Like a biopic, this documentary recounts the birth of a myth and how a song entered the pantheon of pop culture.
Movie - 2025, 2h 15m • as Gabriel Yared
Fiction, reality and delusion gradually merge during the making of ‘Killerwood’, a thriller about a series of unsolved murders in modern-day Athens.
Movie - 1983, 2h 15m • as Paul Jarry, composer
An insurance investigator meets an attractive woman in a hotel on his way to check out the causes of a fire that destroyed a movie set.
Drama Series - 2011, 16 episodes • as Self
Hollywood in Vienna is an annual film music gala hosted in the Vienna Concert Hall where the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award is presented.
Movie - 2016, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
Sensitive lookback on Françoise Hardy's career and life.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Self
Michel Legrand, jazz musician and composer extraordinaire, has left his mark on the history of cinema, including the films of Jacques Demy, especially The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the 60th anniversary of which is being celebrated in Cannes. Using never-before-seen archives and personal accounts, the film looks back on a lifetime dedicated to music, and the career of a man who served it masterfully to the very end.
Movie - 2013, 2h 15m • as Self
A documentary about the making of Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1986 film BETTY BLUE.
Movie - 1999, 2h 15m • as Self
Making the soundtrack of the hit film.
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Self
This documentary brings the audience into the creative process of film scores by featuring the interviews of some of the world’s most renowned film composers, including Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia), Bruno Coulais (The Chorus), Georges Delerue (Jules and Jim) and Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water). With the participation of collaborative personalities, the film revives the memories of these composers, explores their careers and individual works, and probes into their creative universe.
Movie - 2026, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Radio France, with the support of Lambert Wilson, Anne Sila and Gabriel Yared, pays tribute to the great film composer Francis Lai with a journey through his work, from A Man and a Woman to Black Eyes.