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Rick Wentworth’s diverse musical career includes BAFTA award nominations and a plethora of work in many musical fields and styles. His wide range of talents and ability to work in most genres has produced Film and TV scores heard throughout the world. In addition to composing, conducting and orchestrating his own projects he remains in great demand as conductor and orchestrator to the finest composers here and in the USA producing results of the highest standard.

Born in London Rick began his musical career playing guitar, heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Charlie Christian and later Eric Clapton. He was subsequently asked to provide arrangements for the legendary Buddy Rich and Louise Bellson orchestras. Rick then entered the London College of Music and graduated to The Royal College of Music attaining the Lillian Hunt Prize for conducting and the William Lloyd-Webber Award for composition.

His formative work involved assisting the world-renowned English composer Sir Mchael Tippet bringing his opera THE ICE BREAK to its premier performance at the Royal Opera House. Rick was also closely involved with the late, legendary actor/director Sam Wanamaker and the innovative theatre designer Ralph Koltai.

Rick’s work in film music includes writing the score for the infamous cult film WITHNAIL AND I directed by Bruce Robinson, starring Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann. This was followed by the Bruce Robinson film HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING; both features for George Harrison’s production company Handmade Films. His talent for scoring animation, which started in commercials, became indispensable when the feature length animation FREDDIE AS FR07 became his next film project. This featured not only a full orchestral score but the opportunity to write and produce songs for GEORGE BENSON, PATTI AUSTIN and GRACE JONES. Rick’s expertise with animation includes the very individual score for the film MONSIEUR PETT which received much admiration around the world when shown at manyinternational festivals. He has also produced a number of other scores for animation company Telemagination which include the highly popular LAST POLAR BEARS and forty episodes of LITTLE GHOSTS. Rick’s continuing association with Oscar Grillo (Monsieur Pett) also produced a successful collaboration with SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY who commissioned him to orchestrate and conduct a personal film THE LIGHT FROM WITHIN. Following this success McCartney asked Rick to orchestrate arrangements for his prestigious, televised appearance at the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize.

His next film project, following Freddie F07, was the highly acclaimed and controversial Israeli film THE DYBBUK directed by Yossi Somer for Condor Films. This showed Rick’s flair for working with ethnic instruments and he persuaded ex Pink Floyd front man ROGER WATERS to cover the famous Bob Dylan track KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR for inclusion in the sound track.

In recent years Rick has established himself as one of the foremost BritishTelevision composers. His extensive and diverse credits include work on the award winning Granada series CRACKER starring Robbie Coltrane which earned him a BAFTA nomination; the award winning BETWEEN THE LINES and the classic costume drama THE MOONSTONE directed by Robert Bierman both for BBC TV. Rick is currently scoring his third series of the hugely successful ITV drama ULTIMATE FORCE for Bentley Productions.

Rick’s contribution to major films are too numerous to mention but recent work has included orchestrations and conducting for TOMB RAIDER, THE TIME MACHINE, NED KELLY and PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN. As well as his primary work as a composer, Rick has had a long and productive association with former Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters. They have been collaborating on Water’s opera project CA IRA which is being distributed by Sony Classical and has been recorded in various parts of the USA and Europe. Rick has been responsible for all the orchestration, conducting and co-production. Rick wasasked to conduct the world premiere of the overture from CA IRA at the Albert Hall where he also arranged and conducted a collection of Waters famed hit tracks with the orchestra fronted by Waters and his band.

As well as all his contributions to music for Films and TV, Rick has composed music for many memorable advertising campaigns including Nissan, Kellogs, American Express, Burger King, American Airlines, Ford and Guinness. His string arrangements can be heard on tracks from many artists including THE LIGHTENING SEEDS, BLUR, and DEL AMITRI.

Film Credits

WITHNAIL And I
Dir. Bruce Robinson | Handmade Films

THE DYBBUK
Dir. Yossi Somer | Condor Films

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING
Dir. Bruce Robinson | Handmade Films

FREDDIE AS FRO7
Dir. Jon Acevski | Hollywood Road Productions

MR. PETT
Klacto Animations

DALZIEL AND PASCOE
BBC TV | TV Film

Television Credits

JONATHAN CREEK
BBC TV

ULTIMATE FORCE series 3
Bentley Productions

PARADISE HEIGHTS
BBC TV

ULTIMATE FORCE series 1 and 2
Bentley Productions

CRACKER
Granada TV

LITTLE GHOSTS
Telemagination

BLIND AMBITION
YTV

THE ALCHEMIST
Red Rooster

SILENT WITNESS
BBC TV

THE MOONSTONE
BBC TV

THE WRITING ON THE WALL
BBC TV

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Yorkshire TV

SLEEPERS
BBC TV

BETWEEN THE LINES
BBC TV

SAM SATURDAY
ITV

WORK
Channel 4

WHITE GOODS
Select TV