We have been informed of the death of Larry Ashmore, unsung orchestrator/composer of Gosford Park, Bridget Jones’s Diary and much else. He also worked as an arranger on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and was uncredited on many other films.
Larry was always based in London, worked with London orchestras (especially the LSO) and wrote suites for them. He suffered a stroke yesterday. May he rest in peace.
Here is some more biographical information. And here is his gorgeous arrangement of Gerald Finzi’s Five Bagatelles.
Larry was at RCM with Colin Davis, Julian Bream and Hugh Bean among many others; with the LSO and RPO he played under Klemperer, Beecham and knew Finzi well. And from 1989 he was Patrick Doyle’s right hand man, orchestrating most of his movie scores. Larry wasn’t unsung in the movie profession; everyone knows how good he was.
May I recommend his memoir, which details his wonderfully diverse musical life. It’s available to read on his website:
http://larryashmore.co.uk/60-years-in-music/
Thanks for that address, Tommy.
What lovely music–and so well-suited to the scenes in the video. Finzi’s music deserves wider recognition and more performances ;and Ashmore’s arrangements of it would go a long way to achieving that.
I had no idea – so proud to have met him