Rolfe Kent
“Kent’s great gift... is his timbral control. He mixes sound colours beautifully, even allowing in moments of spoken voice that are so fleeting and subdued that they become another musical instrument.”
-- Andrew Granade, SoundtrackNet
Unexpected texture, sounds and a signature musical personality are the hallmarks of British film & theatre composer Rolfe Kent, who has scored more than 60 films, including Academy Award-nominated Up in the Air (for which he won a Golden Satellite award); Sideways (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Award in 2007); Labour Day; Bad Words; Dom Hemingway; About Schmidt; Election; Mean Girls; Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde II; Wedding Crashers; The Matador; Reign Over Me; The Hunting Party; and Thank You for Smoking. Kent also composed the Emmy-nominated main title theme for the Showtime hit Dexter. In 2012, he received the Richard Kirk Award for career achievement. His most recent scores are for the ITV series Stonehouse and the film North Star, directed by Kristin Scott Thomas.
Born in England into a non-musical family, Kent intuitively felt at age 12 that he wanted to be a film composer, although his early musical training was brief and not so formal. Citing Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia and Morricone’s The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as inspirations, Kent took the advice of an early music teacher to avoid classical study that would dampen his enthusiasm and instead follow an entirely enthusiasm- and curiosity-driven path. While studying psychology at the University of Leeds in Yorkshire, Kent’s musical theatre career was casually begun at a dance club when the director of a play, Peter Morgan, offered him a chance to “do” the music. His jump start was his composition for a stage musical, Gross, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a springboard for authors, composers and performers.
In the confines of his musically busy studio, one can immediately see why his musical personality is as distinct and as his own. With an innately curious and adventurous spirit that is audible through his embrace of multicultural musical styles, Kent has developed a style that is not only distinct but also indicative of his aversion to the anticipated score in tone, texture and rhythm. The walls are lined with many familiar and many more unfamiliar instruments, gingerly handled and gleefully demonstrated for their sonic qualities. Among his collection are the Indonesian percussion instrument the angklung; the shawm (first used in military manoeuvres as a psychological weapon); the melodica, used for the light, soothing effect in Kent’s jazz-infused score for his Golden Globe-nominated Sideways; and an instrument he discovered and cannot name that sounds like the world’s beaches at their most romantic high tide... combined.
Kent has the distinction of attracting and sustaining relationships with directors as popular and diverse as Alexander Payne, Mark Waters, Jason Reitman, Burr Steers, John S. Baird and Richard Shepard. He is also the founder of LA immersive theatre company The Unmarked Door and a member of the British theatre company The Naiads.
