James Shearman

James Shearman is an English composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is recognised as a film score conductor and orchestrator who has contributed to numerous film scores, including Shakespeare in Love (1998) Gosford Park (2001) Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Thor (both 2011), Pixar's Brave (2012), Disney's Cinderella (2015), Manchester by the Sea (2016) and Disney's Beauty and the Beast (2017).

He is the composer of notable U.S platinum and gold selling classical crossover songs Dream a Dream (2000) and Amici Forever (2004). Shearman has conducted many leading orchestras both on film soundtracks London Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra , Hollywood Studio Symphony , City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra , and in the concert hall appearing as guest conductor The Philharmonia Orchestra , Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra , City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra , Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra , Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Shearman was awarded Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2015.

Early life
Shearman studied composition and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music London, England, where he won the Eric Coates prize for composition. Whilst in his final year of studies, as part of the Academy's annual music festival, he was commissioned to compose a piece honouring the career of legendary film composer John Williams. The piece was premiered to John Williams himself, by the Academy's symphony orchestra as part of the British Film Festival 1996

Film
As of 2018, according to the independent movie database is credited as orchestrator and/or conductor on over 80 feature film scores and has collaborated with film composers (many of which are Academy Award winning and/or nominated), including Lesley Barber, Patrick Doyle, Elliot Goldenthal, Mark Isham, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Alan Menken, Eric Neveux, Basil Poledouris, John Powell, and Hans Zimmer.

In the Concert Hall
In the concert hall Shearman has guest conducted City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 2004 (Birmingham symphony hall), The Philharmonia Orchestra 2014 & 2015 (Royal festival hall), Ulster Orchestra & Czech National Symphony Orchestra both 2014, Prague Philharmonia 2015 & 2016, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra 2016 & 2017 (Katara opera house), Staatsorchester Braunschweig 2016, City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra 2017 (Estates theatre).

In 2017 he conducted Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra for the televised 10th anniversary Hollywood in Vienna 2017 film music gala, sharing the podium with American conductor John Mauceri.

His concert programs often contain both film and classical music.

Classical Cross-over and Pop Music
In 2000 Shearman co-composed Dream a Dream for Welsh soprano Charlotte Church. Dream a Dream was the biggest-selling holiday album of 2000 in the United States with sales of 1,077,000 according to Nielsen/SoundScan. On December 6, 2000, Dream a Dream was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million copies in the U.S. By December 5, 2008, the album had accumulated total sales of 1,630,000 copies in the U.S. according to SoundScan.

Miscellaneous
In 2016 Shearman was included into Who's Who (UK).