Life and career

Danna was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but his family moved to Burlington, Ontario when he was four weeks old. He is the brother of fellow composer Jeff Danna. He has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned Danna the first of his thirteen Genie Award nominations. He has won five times for Achievement in Music - Original Score. Danna is recognized as one of the pioneers of combining non-Western sound sources with orchestral and electronic minimalism in the world of film music. This reputation has led him to work with such directors as Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, Terry Gilliam, Scott Hicks, Ang Lee, Gillies MacKinnon, James Mangold, Mira Nair, Billy Ray, Joel Schumacher, and Denzel Washington. His soundtrack for Ang Lee's Life of Pi earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score and Best Original Song Pi's Lullaby.

He studied music composition at the University of Toronto, winning the Glenn Gould Composition Scholarship in 1985. Danna also served for five years as composer-in-residence at the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto (1987-1992). Works for dance include music for Dead Souls (Carbone Quatorze Dance Company, directed by Gilles Maheu 1996), and a score for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Gita Govinda (2001) based on the 1000-year-old classical Gita Govinda, with choreographer Nina Menon. In June 2014, Danna was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of Toronto, for his career achievements in the field of music.

Family

Danna's wife Aparna is of Indian origin; the couple have two sons. He is the older brother of composer Jeff Danna.

Recent projects

Recent projects include Deepa Mehta's Water, Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies, Terry Gilliam's Tideland, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine, Bennett Miller's Capote, Moneyball and Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer.

Filmography

Year	Title	Notes
1987	Family Viewing
1987	Caribe
1988	Murder One
1988	Blood Relations
1989	Speaking Parts
1989	Road to Avonlea	TV series
1989	One Man Out
1989	Cold Comfort
1989	Without Work: Not by Choice	Short Film
1989	Termini Station
1990	Still Life: The Fine Art of Murder
1991	The Adjuster
1991	Johann's Gift to Christmas	TV Short series
1991	Montréal vu par...	segment: "En passant"
1991	The Big Slice
1993	Hush Little Baby	TV movie
1993	Gross Misconduct	TV movie
1993	Ordinary Magic
1994	Exotica
1994	The Darling Family
1994	Narmada: A Valley Rises	Documentary
1995	Johnny Mnemonic
1995	Dance Me Outside
1996	Dangerous Offender: The Marlene Moore Story	TV movie
1996	Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
1996	Lilies
1997	The Ice Storm
1997	The Sweet Hereafter
1998	At the End of the Day: The Sue Rodriguez Story
1999	The Boondock Saints	With his brother Jeff
1999	Girl, Interrupted
1999	Don't Think Twice	Short Film
1999	Ride with the Devil
1999	Felicia's Journey
1999	8MM
1999	The Confession
2000	Bounce
2001	Hearts in Atlantis
2001	Monsoon Wedding
2001	The Hire: Chosen
2001	Green Dragon	With his brother Jeff
2002	Antwone Fisher
2002	The Guys
2002	Ararat
2003	The Snow Walker
2003	Shattered Glass
2003	Hulk	Additional cue "Mother"
2004	Being Julia
2004	Vanity Fair
2005	Sohni Sapna
2005	Eve and the Fire Horse
2005	Tideland	With his brother Jeff
2005	Water	Background score only Genie Award for Best Original Score
2005	Capote
2005	Where the Truth Lies
2005	Aurora Borealis
2006	The Nativity Story
2006	Little Miss Sunshine
2006	Lonely Hearts
2007	Surf's Up
2007	Breach
2008	Adoration
2008	Lakeview Terrace	With his brother Jeff
2009	(500) Days of Summer	With Rob Simonsen
2009	Chloe
2009	Management
2009	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus	With his brother Jeff
2009	The Time Traveler's Wife
2011	Camelot	TV series With his brother Jeff
2011	Moneyball
2012	Life of Pi	Academy Award for Best Original Score Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Pi's Lullaby")
2014	Devil's Knot
2014	Transcendence
2014	The Captive
2015	Sanjay's Super Team	Short Film
2015	The Good Dinosaur	With his brother Jeff

[ Source: Wikipedia ]