Press
Music leaves an impression. This page gathers the impressions left in print and press by Matt Dunkley’s performances and collaborations.
“There was this small, leanly produced, very personal song by Billie Eilish. I just went, ‘that's it’. It felt hugely personal; it felt really well crafted. I really liked how lean it was. My friend Matt Dunkley actually did the majority of the string arrangements and Steve Lipson, engineer extraordinaire, came in. We just spent the day adding little orchestral touches."
Hans Zimmer, British GQ Magazine
“We have to start where all Bond soundtracks start, and that’s with the song. All Bond movies try to bring in one of the most popular artists of the day to sing the title song, and No Time to Die certainly did that by getting its song to be written and performed by Billie Eilish. I think the “No Time to Die” song is terrific. It has a much more classic Bond sound than one might have expected, thanks to the string and brass arrangements by Matt Dunkley, and the lyrics are drenched in the same sort of anguish that Bond feels in previous films, and throughout much of this one, so they feel right. The melody itself has a wistfulness that is really attractive, and some of Dunkley’s little John Barry touches are perfect – a muted trumpet here, a string flutter there, a moody electric guitar, a familiar chord. The song won the award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2020 Grammy Awards (because the song was released during the 2019–20 eligibility period, in anticipation of the film’s original April 2020 release date) and I think it’s likely to win an Oscar too”.
Jonathan Broxton, Movie Music UK
“Matt is one of the world’s foremost figures in film music. There’s no one I trust more to bring this music to life on stage.”
Hans Zimmer, New York Post
Andrew Wyatt: “We’d then give the orchestrations to Matt Dunkley. With a film of this size, we at the very least wanted to run everything past him, so we knew it was going to work when there were 140 people on the sound stage for the recordings. We didn’t want to have any surprises, and he’s a real pro. It was our first rodeo, but he’s done this a million times. So, while we created many of the arrangement ideas and orchestration ideas, he was very important in translating them, and he also added many interesting ideas. He’d add things or take out things that he thought weren’t going to work, and when he was done, he gave things to his transcriber."
Paul Tingen, Sound on Sound
“In addition to the songs, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt were also tasked with writing the film’s score, which is something neither man had attempted individually before (although Ronson did work with Geoff Zanelli on the score for Mortdecai back in 2015). Of course, they had help – mostly from conductor/orchestrator extraordinaire Matt Dunkley – but as I said what’s so great about the score is how much cross-pollination there is between it and the original songs."
Jonathan Broxton, Movie Music UK
Nicholas Britell: “We have an amazing musical director I’ve worked with many times, Matt Dunkley, who was on set; he actually plays Dr. Mullmoy in episodes ten and twelve, and he’s in the band. Matt helped with coordinating and conducting at times, and with those pieces on set. Tony Gilroy (series creator and show runner) gave me a gift that was very kind, one of the horns we created. I named it after Matt Dunkley: the Dunklehorn. It’s sitting in my living room!”
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture
“Britell and Gilroy spent about 10 months preparing the music that would be heard on the set, as well as “brainstorming, experimenting” and establishing priorities in terms of key sequences, Britell says. Then around May 2021, he started writing the scene-specific scores. Recording began in the fall of 2021 and continued through the end of July 2022.
“I was here in New York writing, and we were recording literally every week in London,” Britell reports. Veteran orchestrator Matt Dunkley regularly conducted an approximately 80-piece orchestra in London’s AIR studios, with additional percussion recordings happening at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove studio”.
Jon Burlingame, Variety
"The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra played sumptuously for arranger/conductor Matt Dunkley, and all the gracefully integrated instrumental, vocal and choral guests added richness to the occasion".
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"One must commend the extraordinary style, and intelligence of the LA Phil’s conductor Matt Dunkley. Six months of planning song selections and repertoire to showcase Rahman’s talents is an invigorating collaboration."
India Post
“British composer/conductor Matt Dunkley’s arrangement of A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning music from “Slumdog Millionaire” began with a lovely, inspired opening that skillfully maintained the epic grandeur of the best Hollywood-inspired film scores. Progressing from the grace of “Latika’s Theme” to the spirited and engaging “Escape,” its every cymbal clash and colorful effect added to its impact."
Jason Victor Serinus, The Seattle Times
“Pathé and Calamity Films announced today that Matt Dunkley will serve as the musical director on the upcoming biographical drama Judy. The film is directed by Rupert Goold (True Story) and stars Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland, alongside Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock and Sir Michael Gambon. Dunkley has previously served as an orchestrator, arranger and conductor on numerous scores by Clint Mansell (Black Swan), Hans Zimmer (Inception), Craig Armstrong (The Great Gatsby), among other composers and also recently released his debut solo album Six Cycles."
Film Music Reporter
Renée Zellweger: “Throughout, I continued training with Matt Dunkley, our genius master musical director. Those people I dealt with took all the fear out of it. I didn’t have time to think of being judged; I simply needed to hush the critics in my head.” Meanwhile, Dunkley has credited Zellweger with mastering a completely various vocal style for the role: “She trained with a speaking voice coach to get the noise of Judy’s voice and her pronunciation and she dealt with a choreographer to get her quirks, but Renee naturally has a higher voice– what we call a head voice– whereas Judy, at this phase of her life, had an extremely low voice, down in the chest, so we dealt with Renee to get her singing because method. She’s done an amazing job.”
Drew Simms, Film News
“Zellweger spent one year training with a vocal coach, Eric Vetro, before production began. She then rehearsed for four months with the film’s musical director, Matt Dunkley, to master her vocals”.
Paul Chi, Vanity Fair
“The musical numbers (no prize for guessing which one comes as the film concludes, but music director and arranger Matt Dunkley deserves a warm smile for his work throughout) are where Zellweger ultimately shines brightest."
Evans Donnell, The Stage Critic
“Peter Pan on wires is nothing new – but this vast arena show is virtually in orbit. The £10 million production – the sets are digital projections – feels like one by Cirque du Soleil, but with pirate acrobats and a score by Matt Dunkley. It’s thrillingly spectacular and the flying and pyrotechnics are incredible.”
Robert Gore-Langton, The Mail on Sunday
"This week's highlight was the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing the music of A.R.Rahman at the prestigious Royal Festival Hall. Needless to say, the event was sold-out; made distinctive not only by the South Asians of every hue and age crowding the venue, but also the huge number of non-Asian fans. The music conducted by the very versatile Matt Dunkley, and played and sung by a 100-piece orchestra and choir was a truly unique experience of Rahman's genius."
Kishwar Desai, The Asian Age
“The orchestra were absolutely on point, flourishing under the conducting of accomplished soundtrack composer and orchestrator Matt Dunkley (Inception, Black Swan) himself a frequent collaborator with A.R.Rahman."
Nikki Spunde, Australian Stage
"Joe Kraemer's approach to Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation sought to reinvigorate the sound for Hunt's mission by returning to a more intelligent utilization of not only Schifrin's primary and "The Plot" themes, but an adherence to the orchestral standards that existed during the original television series' run. In other words, Kraemer sought to write what would have functioned in that context and simply beefed up that ambience for a 2010's environment. It's a vintage score in every regard, Kraemer's composition and Matt Dunkley's orchestrations impressively more successful than Giacchino's like-minded attempts to the same end. The latter's orchestration work deserves particular kudos."
Filmtracks
“Matt Dunkley – the man who has orchestrated Glasgow composer Craig Armstrong’s movie music for the past 20 years – arrived to conduct the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert that showed how a popular programme can still be endlessly fascinating. If a Dimitri Tiomkin suite from It’s a Wonderful Life was arguably in a class of it’s own, it was run close by Dunkley’s exciting arrangement of the adaption of Tchaikovsky that soundtracked Black Swan. That was one of a clutch of premieres of suites from scores that the conductor had brought, which made Sunday afternoon a really special event for the packed house”.
Keith Bruce, Glasgow Herald
"Special recognition should go to the work of Clint Mansell (composer) and Matt Dunkley (orchestrator/conductor) for adapting Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake into a dark and brooding musical landscape for Aronofsky and company to play on. Dunkley's work orchestrating the difficult music of Swan Lake to a wide range of ensemble sizes is breathtaking and key to the success of the film.”
110mb.com
"Aronofsky dares to mess with a classic: in this case Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s classic 1876 ballet score Swan Lake, via his composer Clint Mansell and conductor/orchestrator Matt Dunkley. The cues which make up the film’s grand finale – “A Swan Is Born” and “Perfection” – contain the longest stretches of pure Tchaikovsky performance, and they are quite glorious.
The powerful performance of the ravishing Danse Hongrois (Hungarian Dance) in “A Swan Is Born” is breathtaking, while the extended statement of the magnificent Swan Theme in “Perfection”, with its sweeping refrain and soaring melodramatic string writing, is simply wonderful."
Jonathan Broxton, Movie Music UK
“Black Swan required a score that evoked sensations of both heaven and terror. Clint Mansell’s collaboration with orchestrator Matt Dunkley achieved all that and more! Although extremely disturbing, Black Swan offers a remarkably unique insight into the traumatic sadness of a girl’s struggle to live up to her mother’s image of perfection for her against the suppressed force of her inner nature. Clint Mansell’s and Matt Dunkley’s brilliant adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s ballet deserves nothing less than a standing ovation.”
Mr Film Score, Black Sounds
Tuomas Kantelinen: “I have a wonderful long collaboration with Matt Dunkley from the UK, a great orchestrator and composer who really understands my way of creating music (both in the artistic and logistic sense – meaning I tend to be a bit last minute sometimes). I wouldn’t use an orchestrator for my classical concert pieces, because I feel the craft is in all those intricate details. But in film music often there is just not enough time to go that deep into it, especially when dealing with the US way of doing things which is much more a group effort of a number of folks giving notes and the composer addressing them, sometimes until the recording. A lot of time is used into honing cues, and for Hercules I certainly couldn’t have pulled it off without Matt’s endless patience and talent.”
John Mansell, Soundtrack Magazine
"The orchestra, conducted by British arranger/composer Matt Dunkley, put on an hypnotic show, adding a western classical twist to a selection of scores from the Oscar winning composer A.R.Rahman’s oeuvre.”
Vinayak Chakravorty, Mail Today (Delhi)
"The conductor of the orchestra, Matt Dunkley, was a sight to behold, as he swayed and directed the 100 plus musicians with panache. His energy was contagious, as the musicians responded to the charged up atmosphere, and played to the gallery.”
Ektaa Malik, The Pioneer (Delhi)
"The challenge in most cross-cultural collaborations is the articulation of the “other”. Matt Dunkley, the conductor, orchestrator and composer, executed this daunting task with remarkable élan and perfection. It needs to be said to the credit of the conductor and his remarkably talented orchestra that the journey was constantly outward, seeing it in Rahman’s way and never an affirmation of one’s own identity.”
The Hindu (Bangalore)
"The score is composed by Matt Dunkley, a British composer whose name is perhaps most recognisable as an orchestrator of dozens of film scores over the last decade or so, including most of Craig Armstrong's and, more recently, several from Hans Zimmer's stable. He has few credits as a composer in his own right - which would appear to be a great pity, if The Four Musketeers is anything to go by. Dunkley is clearly a talented composer and let's hope he gets further opportunities to demonstrate it.”
James Southall, Movie Wave
"Matt Dunkley, a British composer who has worked extensively as an orchestrator for Craig Armstrong and Randy Edelman, has crafted a sumptuously melodic and exciting orchestral score for The Four Musketeers.”
Randall Larson, Soundtrax
“After years of involvement in film and TV composition, including contributions to Inception and The Dark Knight, Matt Dunkley has teamed up with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra to create a short album that sounds like – you guessed it – a soundtrack. The difference is that “6 Cycles” is not a soundtrack, but a fully orchestrated series of dramatic, moving works. Dunkley’s time has finally come around.”
Richard Allen, A Closer Listen
“The legendary composer and conductor is back to pick up where his debut album left off. Like the debut, it was recorded in Berlin with the German film orchestra Babelsberg. It retains the majestic, cinematic, orchestral mood of ‘6 Cycles’, no doubt appealing to fans of the soundtrack work of Hans Zimmer and Clint Mansell and the contemporary classical stylings of Yann Tiersen and Ludovico Einaudi. As well as being almost double the length, this boasts a broader sonic palette than its predecessor, such as the full symphony orchestra on ‘cycle 12’ and the seven solo pianos used on ‘cycle 14’. After a career of working with the likes of Patti Smith & Nick Cave and helping with the scores of Black Swan, Inception and others alike, it is now time to make sure you listen to his own work – believe us, it stands up to his collaborators.”