Can You Become a Score Composer Through Education? (3)

This question, in many ways, reflects the path of every major role in filmmaking. To illustrate, consider two examples. Director Sir Christopher Nolan, known for Memento, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Tenet, and Oppenheimer, and composer Hans Zimmer, famous for Gladiator, The Lion King, Dune, and Pirates of the Caribbean, didn’t go to school for their craft or get a diploma in it. On this side of the coin, things are simple. Some people can grow, work incredibly hard, and build amazing careers without formal education. They can become global examples and inspirations in their field. So yes, you can rarely become a score composer without going to school. But...

Sir Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer together in the studio on the Interstellar film score. (2014)

Now let’s look at the other side, which is a bit more chaotic. Today, it’s important to understand what directors or producers expect from a newcomer in the scoring world. Film production habits and methods have changed over time, and the need for film and TV music has evolved. This has changed the profession itself and increased the demands placed on composers. Today, a score composer often has to be not just a composer, but also a skilled instrumentalist, arranger, orchestrator, score editor, mix engineer, mastering engineer, and sometimes even a conductor. On top of that, they need to be a skilled promoter. At least, this is roughly what the industry expects from someone new trying to rise. Being or trying to be such a versatile creator can be deeply rewarding but also makes formal education more valuable. While internships and assistant positions exist, handling all these responsibilities without schooling is almost impossible. You might be able to do it after spending 5 to 10 years as an assistant, but even then, these roles rarely teach you everything from start to finish.

For that reason, I personally strongly recommend that anyone who wants to be a score composer makes the most of a degree and uses their time wisely. As a doctoral researcher observing students, I’ve noticed how much valuable time can be lost and I plan to share my thoughts on that in another post.

To give another perspective, let’s make a rough calculation. Imagine 30 countries with strong arts and culture programs. Each country has at least three major cities, and each city has at least two schools or conservatories offering film scoring programs. That’s 180 institutions. If each school graduates 30 students per year across all levels, that’s about 5,400 new score composers entering the field every year. And that’s just those who studied film scoring specifically. Add classical composers, instrumentalists, and others interested in film music, and we could be talking about 10 to 15 thousand potential newcomers each year. Meanwhile, around 8,500 films are produced annually worldwide. Many have no music budget, and directors often stick to composers they already know. In TV, composer houses/companies often handle assignments rather than individual composers.

On the bright side of the medallion, there have always been and will always be amazing composers without formal degrees. On the darker side, formal education is increasingly becoming almost necessary, while the number of graduates is growing faster than the number of available projects, creating bottlenecks.

For me, the path I personally follow and recommend is this. Take the medallion with you and don’t worry too much about which side it faces. When you act, both sides will be there. Act as if you don’t have a degree: work passionately, consistently, and regularly. Keep developing yourself, stay open to innovation, adapt to life, and cultivate face-to-face connections, remembering that we are social beings. And most importantly, find those who know better than you and stay close to them. And earn a degree. Know every part of the project, be able to contribute in every area, play instruments, learn conducting, orchestration, recording technologies, notation, research, networking, and even promotion.

This way, no matter which side of the medallion you need, you’ll be ready to flip it.

Nobody beats me up as much as I beat myself up. This is what I love doing and I have one life to do it in. And I better do it right. I better do it well. - Hans Florian Zimmer

Next topic: “Making the Most of Your Time”