Rob Simonsen
Rob Simonsen writes film scores with a strong dramatic sweep that combines electronic textures with orchestral arrangements. Beginning with independent films in the early 2000s, he was working on major Hollywood productions within ten years, as well as writing string arrangements for pop musicians. Simonsen's most celebrated scores included 2013's The Spectacular Now, 2016's Nerve, and 2020's The Way Back, and he released an album of his own music, Rêveries, in 2019. His unsettling, atmospheric score for 2022's The Whale was a departure from the playful, often sentimental tone of his prior romantic comedies.
Rob Simonsen was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 11, 1978. He grew up in a household of music enthusiasts, and his grandmother was a voice teacher. He studied music theory and jazz piano in college, where he began branching out into composing. Simonsen made his debut as a film composer when he wrote the score for the 2003 independent fantasy Westender. He soon moved up to bigger projects, assisting Mychael Danna, working alongside the composer and penning additional music for the films Life of Pi (2012), Moneyball (2011), and Surf's Up (2007); they were full collaborators for 2009's (500) Days of Summer. Working on his own, Simonsen went on to score movies including The Spectacular Now (2013) and The Way, Way Back (2013), which together earned him World Soundtrack Award nomination for Discovery of the Year. In 2013, he co-founded the Echo Society, a composer's collective dedicated to new and adventurous audio/visual performance projects.
As his workload picked up considerably, he began work on the sitcom Life in Pieces in 2015 and delivered scores for films such as teen action film Nerve (2016), the crime comedy Going in Style (2017), and Tully (2018) and The Front Runner (2018), both with director Jason Reitman. Meanwhile, Simonsen also contributed string arrangements to recordings by Serena Ryder, Tamar Kaprelian, and Redlight King, and programmed drums for Katy Perry 's 2017 album Witness. 2019 saw the release of Simonsen's first solo album, Rêveries, issued by Sony Masterworks.
The 2020s found him working on the sports drama The Way Back (2020), the next year's Ghostbusters: Afterlife (with Reitman), and the Grace VanderWaal vehicles Stargirl (2020) and Hollywood Stargirl (2022). In 2022, he found critical acclaim with his ambient-minded score for the award-winning Darren Aronofsky drama The Whale.
© Mark Deming & Marcy Donelson /TiVo
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Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Sony Classical on 19 Nov 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Whale (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by A24 Music on 9 Dec 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rêveries
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 6 Sep 2019
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Way Back (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by WaterTower Music on 28 Feb 2020
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Good Grief (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Netflix Music on 5 Jan 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Adam Project (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Milan on 11 Mar 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Love, Simon (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 16 Mar 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Captive State (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Masterworks on 15 Mar 2019
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nerve (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 7 Sep 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stargirl (Original Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Walt Disney Records on 13 Mar 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Age of Adaline (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 20 Apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Burnt (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 4 Dec 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Demain tout commence (Bande originale du film)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Pathé Films on 5 Dec 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hollywood Stargirl (Original Soundtrack)
Hollywood Stargirl - Cast, Michael Penn, Rob Simonsen
Film Soundtracks - Released by Walt Disney Records on 3 Jun 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Our Friend (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 22 Jan 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fast Color (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Miles of Lions Records on 19 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Way Way Back (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Columbia on 19 Jul 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Only Living Boy in New York (Amazon Original Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Lakeshore Records on 18 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Upside (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Masterworks on 18 Jan 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Viral (Original Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by IM Global Music on 29 Jul 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -