swap_horiz James MacMillan 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

Arvo Pärt

Estonian composer (born 1935) renowned for his tintinnabuli style of spiritual minimalism in works like Spiegel im Spieg...

Contemporary Minimalist Sacred Estonian

8.6 Great

3

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

4

Krzysztof Penderecki

Polish composer (1933–2020) famous for Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) and his expressive avant-garde orches...

Polish Modern Avant Garde Orchestral

8.3 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

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

7

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

8

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

9

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

10

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

11

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

12

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

13

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

14

Magnus Lindberg

Finnish composer (born 1958) known for dense, complex orchestral works such as Kraft (1985) and his tenure with the New...

Contemporary Modernist Orchestral Chamber

7.6 Good

15

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

16

John Tavener

British composer (1944–2013) known for spiritually inspired works including The Protecting Veil (1987) and Song for Athe...

Contemporary Minimalist British Sacred

7.5 Good

17

Jan Dismas Zelenka

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745) was a Czech Baroque composer renowned for his masses and complex contrapuntal writing at...

Baroque Orchestral Chamber Sacred

7.5 Good

18

Tristan Murail

Tristan Murail (b. 1947) is a French composer and co-founder of the spectral music movement, known for computer-assisted...

French Contemporary Electronic Orchestral

7.5 Good

19

Bright Sheng

Chinese-American composer (born 1955) who blends Chinese and Western traditions in works like the opera Dream of the Red...

Opera Contemporary Orchestral Cross Cultural

7.3 Good

20

Tigran Mansurian

Armenian composer (born 1939) whose works blend Armenian folk idioms with contemporary classical techniques and poetic s...

Contemporary Orchestral Chamber Sacred

7.2 Good