You know the music. You may just not know it was all written by the same composer.
From The Dark Knight and The Hunger Games to Pretty Woman, James Newton Howard has spent decades creating some of the most memorable music in film. Now, audiences have a chance to experience a different side of this celebrated composer: Howard writing not for the screen, but for the concert hall.
With roughly 150 film scores to his name, Howard is one of Hollywood’s leading film composers, with 79 awards and 130 nominations, including five Grammy Awards. His work spans blockbuster films, animation and television, from The Hunger Games franchise and The Dark Knight to King Kong, Raya and the Last Dragon and Emily in Paris. He has also collaborated with acclaimed directors including M. Night Shyamalan, Francis Lawrence, Peter Jackson, Tony Gilroy and Paul Greengrass.
But Howard’s musical voice extends well beyond Hollywood. He has composed major works for the concert stage, including two violin concertos–both premiered by acclaimed violinist James Ehnes.
The first, Violin Concerto No. 1, premiered with Pacific Symphony in 2015. Now, Pacific Symphony welcomes Howard’s Violin Concerto No. 2 for its West Coast Premiere, October 22–24, 2026, at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. Ehnes will perform the concerto, with Pacific Symphony Artistic & Music Director Alexander Shelley conducting.
For audiences who know Howard through the movies, this is an opportunity to hear something entirely new: the music of a master film composer unleashed in the concert hall.
Fun fact: When James Newton Howard reached out to James Ehnes with a demo of the concerto, James Ehnes told him a story: After a screening of the movie Signs (2002), which features solo violin in the score, James Ehnes’ wife told him “You should have James Newton Howard write you a violin concerto.”
Howard talks about the process of writing a violin concerto for James Ehnes: he is very familiar with James Ehnes’ sound and describes him as “truly one of the greatest violinists on the planet.” Howard describes the process of writing a violin concerto as “an incredibly painful experience” for him. The “guardrails” that exist for film music (like dialogue, sound effects, and story) don’t exist in the same way for music written for the concert hall. The possibilities for stories are infinite here – and you have to carefully form the musical dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. Only after about two years did Howard start to feel comfortable with writing the concerto.
“I wish I had some great words of advice. The only advice I have ever been able to give anybody is to focus on writing music, and if you’re writing a movie score particularly, don’t worry about the picture. Just write great music and the rest will take care of itself.” – James Newton Howard
The first movement is composed of mainly 16th notes for the solo violinist. (In general, 16th notes are one beat broken up into four notes. They tend to sound much quicker, unless the tempo of the piece is very slow. 16th note sections are often the moments that sound the most “virtuosic” to the listener.) This was “something to start with” for Howard, with “no emotional thing attached to it.”
The second movement was written after an argument with his son. During that period of time, Howard sat down at the piano and improvised a large part of what later became the second movement of the concerto.
The third movement was written to be a “super exciting finish.” Howard wanted the concerto to be fast enough but not rushed – and according to Howard, Alexander Shelley “nailed the tempo.”
“Every beat, every gesture had a real, clear meaning…I was just blown away.” – James Ehnes about working with Alexander Shelley.
Don’t miss the West Coast premiere of Howard’s Violin Concerto No. 2, played by James Ehnes on October 22-24, 2026 at 8pm at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, CA. Get tickets now.
Three more fun facts about James Newton Howard:
- In the late 70s and early 80s, James Newton Howard toured with Elton John’s band as their keyboardist.
- One of James Newton Howard’s most recent projects was to write cues (small portions of music used in scenes to advance the narrative) for the upcoming film Behemoth! featuring Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, and Will Arnett. You can find more about his projects here.
- James Newton Howard has been honored with ASCAP’s prestigious Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement as well as the BMI ICON Award.
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