Bruno Coulais

Bruno Coulais (born January 1954 in Paris) began his musical education on the violin and piano, aiming to become a composer of contemporary classical music. However, a series of acquaintances gradually re-oriented him towards film music. Coulais met François Reichenbach, who asked him in 1977 to sonorize his documentary México mágico and the producer Marie Bodin who permit to compose the first soundtracks for Jacques Davila. Until the end of the 1990s, he composed mainly for television. He also composed the soundtracks for Christine Pascal's  film "Le petit prince a dit" and Agnès Merlet's "Le fils du requin".
In 1994 Coulais met the television producer Josée Dayan, who let him write a theme for the TV series "La rivière esperance", aired on the France 2 network. The largest turning point of his career came in 1996, when he worked with directors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou of the documentary Microcosmos. This single film, which gave a great significance to the music in it, was a great success and made Coulais one of the most wanted composers of French film music. In 1997 he won the César award for the best musical score in a film as well as a Victoire de la Musique. His reputation was confirmed by the soundtracks to "Himalaya" and "Les rivières pourpres" and after that Bruno Coulais's name was to be found on most new French blockbusters, such as "Belphégor" and "Vidocq".
In 2002, his name was found on the ending credits of the animation "L'enfant qui voulait être un ours", and in 2004 on Schoendoerffer's "Agents secrets". The same year, he wrote the soundtrack to the film "Les choristes" , which became an international hit. The music for this film received as great praise as the film itself and it won Coulais his third César award. Since then Coulais's collaborations in cinema seem to be limited to works by directors with whom he already shares some history, in particular Jacques Perrin, Frédéric Schoendoerffer and James Huth.
In 2009, he won the 37th Annie Awards in the "Music in a Feature Production" category for "Coraline". He also collaborated with Irish band Kíla to produce the soundtrack for the beautifully and uniquely animated feature film "The Secret of Kells". In the last three years  also created the soundtracks for "Luck Luke", "unsere Ozeane", "Babys", "La Mer à l'aube" and "Les adieuxà la reine".
Bruno Coulais's musical style may vary significantly between different projects, but there are some constant factors visible: his taste for opera and for human voice (in particular that of children), for a search for original sonority, for world music and for mixing different musical cultures.