David Campbell

David R. Campbell was born in Toronto Canada, but moved to Seattle at a young age and spent most of his childhood there. From age 10, he learned violin, viola and piano, and early on became fascinated with orchestration and conducting. During this time he was a student of Scottish viola icon William Primrose, as well as Seattle maestro, Vilem Sokol. In high school, he formed a string quartet with friends, including schoolmate David Harrington. Campbell played with this group throughout high school and college. Then, while attending Manhattan School of Music, he played several seasons with the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall under the legendary Leopold Stokowski. After years of classical music, David gave in to a long curiosity about orchestration in rock, pop and jazz, and began playing on LA and New York studio sessions and in various rock and bluegrass bands. During the early '70s, he played on many Motown classics including Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On", as well as sessions with Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King's "Tapestry", Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie, Barry White, Barbara Streisand and Bill Withers' "Lean On Me". During this period, he began arranging strings and horns, and it soon became his main focus. For the rest of the decade there were many prominent albums and singles with David Campbell arrangements including No. 1 albums and songs by James Taylor and Jackson Browne. As David's arranging career progressed, he developed an interest in composing for film, and by the mid '80s had scored several independent films including Night of the Comet, as well as major studio releases like Tom Cruise's follow up to Risky Business, All the Right Moves. Continuing to arrange for such artists like Bette Midler and Linda Ronstadt, during this period he also spent considerable time songwriting, producing bands, and composing music for plays as well as commercials for George Lucas, Panasonic and Sony. With the success and Grammy acclaim of Linda Ronstadt's late '80s return to pop, Cry Like a Rainstorm, featuring several Campbell orchestral arrangements, he decided to once again specialize in arrangements for strings and horns. Throughout the 90s David worked on albums including Leonard Cohen's The Future, Willie Nelson's Healing Hands of Time, Green Day's Nimrod, Beck's Mutations and Midnight Vultures, and #1 hits like "Iris" (Goo Goo Dolls), "Uninvited" (Alanis Morissette). From that period to the present, he has built up an eclectic discography in modern rock, country, hip hop and R & B, mainstream pop, Spanish rock, Latin pop, Japanese pop, rock & jazz and other international markets - a combination of all his early interests and influences. He now works across multiple genres from Black Sabbath and Metallica all the way to Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift and everything in between. A short list includes "Sea Change" (Beck), "Time of Your Life" (Green Day), "Tal Vez" (Ricky Martin), "Jaded" (Aerosmith), "Under My Skin" (Avril Lavigne), "100 Years" (Five for Fighting), "Bring Me to Life" (Evanescence), "I Hope You Dance" (Lee Ann Womack), "Not Ready to Make Nice" (Dixie Chicks), "Breaking the Habit" (Linkin Park), "The Black Parade" (My Chemical Romance), "My Wish" (Rascal Flatts), "Because of You" (Kelly Clarkson), and "21" (Adele) - as well as recent No. 1s from Miley Cyrus ("Wrecking Ball"), Taylor Swift (Red), Josh Groban (All that Echoes), Tim McGraw (Two Lanes of Freedom), Muse (The 2nd Law), Beck(Morning Phase) and Pink (The Truth about Love). The official song of the London Olympics, "Survival," featured a collaborative choir arrangement by Muse and Campbell. He has arranged and conducted scores for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Oliver Stone's W, August Osage County, Dead Man Walking and the Oscar-winning score for Brokeback Mountain. As an arranger/conductor for motion picture songs, Campbell worked on Armageddon, Dreamgirls, City of Angels, Daredevil, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Men in Black 2, The Land Before Time, Spiderman 2, Ladder 49, the Oscar-nominated song from Pearl Harbor (Faith Hill), and the Oscar-winning song "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan. He has guest-conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Dallas, Nashville, and Baltimore symphonies, the Tokyo Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony, and at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Olympics. In recent years, he conducted at the Hollywood Bowl for The XX, Sheryl Crow, Death Cab for Cutie, Faith Hill, Ray LaMontagne, Willie Nelson, and Beck. In 2013, he co-arranged and conducted the 167-member orchestra for Beck's "Sound & Vision" 360 video project, sponsored by Lincoln Motor Company. In 2010, he wrote incidental music, arrangements and orchestrations for the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which in 2012 set the record for highest single-week gross and highest single week attendance for any production in the history of Broadway. The musical was directed by Julie Taymor, and featured music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge. Overall, his work appears on more than 425 gold or platinum albums. During his long recording career, albums on which he worked have received 50 Grammys, and his film work has earned two Oscars for music.