Lalo Schifrin

Did You Know?

• Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme is written in the uncommon 5/4 time signature, with the meter (dash dash, dot dot) being Morse code for the letters M and I.
• His 'Tar Sequence' from Cool Hand Luke was the longtime theme for Eyewitness News broadcasts on New York station WABC-TV and other ABC affiliates.
• Schifrin's working score for 1973's The Exorcist was rejected by director William Friedkin; Schifrin called working on the film one of the most unpleasant experiences in his life.
• In 1976, Schifrin released a single called 'Jaws', a version of the John Williams theme, which spent nine weeks on the UK chart and peaked at number 14.
• Schifrin composed the Paramount Pictures fanfare used from 1976 to 2004.

Life and career

Lalo Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on June 21, 1932. His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic for three decades. At age six, Schifrin began a six-year course of study on piano with Enrique Barenboim, later studying with Andrea Karalin and harmony with Juan Carlos Paz. He also became interested in jazz.

Although he studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, he became more interested in music. At age 20, he won a scholarship to the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied from 1952, including with Olivier Messiaen and Charles Koechlin, and also studied African drumming. At night, he played jazz in Paris clubs. In 1955, he played piano with bandoneon player Ástor Piazzolla at the International Jazz Festival in Paris.

Returning to Argentina, he formed a jazz big band of 16 players for a weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV and began accepting film, television and radio assignments. In 1956, he met Dizzy Gillespie and offered to write an extended work for Gillespie's big band; the result, Gillespiana, was recorded in 1960. In 1960, Schifrin moved to New York City to become Gillespie's pianist and arranger, and later wrote a second extended composition, The New Continent, recorded in 1962.

On May 26, 1963, he recorded an album, Buenos Aires Blues, with Johnny Hodges, writing two compositions for it. That same year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offered him his first Hollywood film assignment with Rhino! and he moved to Los Angeles. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1969.

Awards and nominations

Schifrin was a five-time Grammy Award winner; he was nominated for six Academy Awards (five for Best Original Score and once for Best Original Song) and four Emmy Awards. In 2019, he received an Honorary Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of his successful career.