swap_horiz Bright Sheng Alternatives

1

Ennio Morricone

Italian composer (1928–2020) who scored over 500 films, including Sergio Leone's Westerns such as The Good, the Bad and...

Italian Contemporary Film Orchestral

8.9 Great

2

Richard Strauss

Leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, famous for his groundbreaking operas and the symphon...

German Opera Orchestral Late Romantic

8.8 Great

3

Bernard Herrmann

American composer (1911–1975) best known for his film scores for Alfred Hitchcock, including Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (...

Opera Modern American Film

8.8 Great

4

Joe Hisaishi

Japanese composer best known for his decades-long collaboration with director Hayao Miyazaki, scoring virtually every St...

Anime Contemporary Japanese Film

8.4 Great

5

Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Gubaidulina is a prominent Russian composer known for her distinctive and challenging orchestral works. Her music...

Russian Contemporary Avant Garde Experimental

8.2 Great

6

Nino Rota

Italian composer (1911–1979) celebrated for film scores including The Godfather and his long collaboration with Federico...

Opera Modern Italian Film

8.2 Great

7

Kaija Saariaho

Finnish composer (1952–2023) known for spectralist-influenced works including the opera L'Amour de loin, premiered at Sa...

Opera Contemporary Electronics Spectral

8.2 Great

8

Howard Shore

Canadian composer (born 1946) best known for his Academy Award-winning score for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (200...

Opera Contemporary Canadian Film

8.2 Great

9

Bedřich Smetana

19th-century Czech composer regarded as the father of Czech national music, renowned for his symphonic poem "The Moldau....

Romantic Opera Orchestral Czech

8.1 Great

10

Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber was an American composer of neo-Romantic music, best known for his profoundly emotional orchestral piece "...

Romantic Opera Modern American

7.9 Good

11

Thomas Adès

British composer (born 1971) known for operas such as The Tempest (2004) and his virtuosic orchestral and chamber writin...

Opera Contemporary Orchestral Piano

7.9 Good

12

George Benjamin

British composer (born 1960) whose opera Written on Skin (2012) has been widely performed and acclaimed internationally.

Opera Contemporary Orchestral Chamber

7.8 Good

13

Hans Zimmer

German film composer (born 1957) whose scores for The Lion King (1994) and Inception (2010) made him among Hollywood's m...

German Contemporary Electronic Film

7.8 Good

14

Alexandre Desplat

French composer who won Academy Awards for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Shape of Water (2017), among the most...

French Contemporary Film Orchestral

7.8 Good

15

Unsuk Chin

South Korean composer (born 1961) whose acclaimed works include the opera Alice in Wonderland (2007) and Akrostichon-Wor...

Korean Opera Contemporary Modernist

7.7 Good

16

Tan Dun

Chinese-born composer (born 1957) known for scores including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and the opera The Fir...

Opera Contemporary Film Chinese

7.7 Good

17

Michael Giacchino

American composer who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Pixar's Up (2009) and scored the Mission: Imposs...

Television American Contemporary Film

7.7 Good

18

Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey (1946–1998) was a French composer and founding figure of spectral music, which derives musical structure f...

French Contemporary Orchestral Chamber

7.7 Good

19

Bernd Alois Zimmermann

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970) was a German composer known for his pluralist, collage-like style and the complex ope...

German Opera Modern Orchestral

7.7 Good

20

Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli (1935–2019) was a Georgian composer noted for his hauntingly atmospheric post-Soviet orchestral works and...

Contemporary Orchestral Chamber Spiritual

7.6 Good