Francis Shaw is a versatile composer familiar with many different styles and genres: concert music for orchestra, ensemble and choirs, music for children, opera, film and television scores. Ranging from Ancient Greek, Roman and Celtic music realisations using period instruments to orchestral film scores (Jamaica Inn, Shackleton, Vendetta and Evil) and computer generated TV music (Mummies of the Taklamakhan Desert and Mysteries of Karnak) his media music is wide ranging in style.
He studied composition with Lennox Berkeley in London and Goffredo Petrassi in Rome. Contact with Yehudi Menuhin resulted in the commission of ‘Divertimento for Strings’, which he conducted at the Windsor Festival in 1972. This was the start of his professional life as a composer.

His work for feature films started with orchestrating much of Richard Robbins’ music for the highly acclaimed A Room with a View, followed by original scores for Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls and Frederick Forsyth’s The Fourth Protocol (co-composer with Lalo Schifrin), starring Michael Caine, and A Nightingale Sang. In 1994 he composed at short notice the score for the Swedish/Italian film Vendetta. The success of this led to his scores for Swedish TV’s drama series House of Shadows – and the score for Evil (Ondskan). In 2006, the original score for Evil earned Francis Shaw the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score handed out by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

MOVIESCORE MEDIA ALBUMS BY FRANCIS SHAW: