Trevor Morris

Trevor Morris

Trevor Morris is a Canadian score composer, music producer and creator of electronic music, based in London, Canada. He is known for television and film work, especially the scores for The Tudors, The Pillars of the Earth, The Borgias, Vikings and the film Olympus Has Fallen. His work also includes video game music.

Early life and training

Morris is born in London, Ontario, Canada in 1970. He starts music at an early age after his grandmother introduces him to the piano, and she plays him “Puff the Magic Dragon”, a melody he later develops variations on in his own compositions. His parents enrol him at St. Mary’s elementary school for the arts when he is five. He studies choir, violin and contrabass, and also takes private piano lessons.

While in grade 8, his school commissions his first composition for his graduating class to sing during a planned visit by Pope John Paul to Ontario. Security prevents the live performance for the Pope, but the piece, titled Sacred young people, is performed and recorded at the graduation ceremony at St. Mary’s Cathedral. It is written for four-part choir and piano and becomes his first step into composition.

Recording and production work

Morris later studies Recording Engineering at Music Industry Arts in Canada, where he graduates top of his class and receives the award for “most promising engineer / producer”. After college, he moves to Toronto and spends around ten years working in the city’s recording scene, rising through a major recording studio and several commercial production houses. During this period, he writes for a wide range of music houses, ad agencies and studios.

His focus then shifts towards television and film scoring. After a few independent features and his first network one-hour drama, he decides to concentrate on writing to picture. While still in Toronto, he is accepted into the ASCAP scoring workshop in Los Angeles, and travels back and forth each week for over a month while working on his first dramatic television series. Exposure to the film scoring community and the chance to compose and conduct the L.A. All-Stars orchestra leads him to move to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles and collaborations

In 2000, Morris moves to Hollywood. He works on music for E! True Hollywood Story and on network promotional music for Just Shoot Me and King of Queens. His engineering and production background leads to work with James Newton Howard, assisting him on films and helping with orchestra preparation and pre-records.

He then works closely with Hans Zimmer for two and a half years as studio designer, engineer, orchestra wrangler, technical supervisor, producer and co-composer. Their collaborations include Black Hawk Down, Shark Tale, The Last Samurai, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 and 2 and The Ring 1 and 2. He later shares studio space with Zimmer at the Remote Control Facility in west Los Angeles.

Recognition

Morris wins a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music for The Tudors in 2007.