Robert Elhai

Composer, Orchestrator, Arranger

Minneapolis USA

ROBERT ELHAI is a music composer and an orchestrator for over 130 film scores including Iron Man 3, Thor 2, the third, fourth, and fifth Fast and Furious movies, the third and fourth Batman movies, Across The Universe, The Sixth Sense, the first Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Oscar-winning score for Frida. His other projects include music for the Winesburg Trilogy Project (Untold Lies, Twisted Apples, and Answered Prayers) presented by Nautilus Music Theater at the Minnesota Fringe Festival successively in 2010, 2011, and 2012, C., a musical theatre adaption of Cyrano de Bergerac to be produced in the 2015-6 season at Theater Latte Da, as well as Persephone’s Sister, the final piece in Nautilus’ Ivey-Award–winning Sister Stories. 
As an orchestrator, he is the recipient of Tony and Drama Desk nominee for his work for the Broadway production of The Lion King. He has also done arrangements for Metallica’s Grammy Award-winning “S&M” (He also holds degrees from Yale University, Carleton College and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.) He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two sons.

ABOUT ROBERT ELHAI

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ROBERT ELHAI is an award wining composer, orchestrator, and arranger. His most recent theater projects include the scores to In The Midst Of Things (In Media Res), a 15-minute filmed zoom opera, libretto by Christina Baldwin, presented by An Opera Theatre in 2021; Dirty Business, an epic musical about 4 women who were vital yet unknown contributors to the allied victory in WWI, book and lyrics by Laurie Flanigan Hegge, presented by The History Theatre in 2019; Little Women, an exciting new play by Kate Hamill and based on the famous novel, presented by The Jungle Theater in 2018 and Dallas Theater Center in 2020; Twisted Apples, a music theater trilogy based on stories from Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," book and lyrics by Jim Payne, presented by Nautilus Music Theater  in 2017; The Lady With A Lapdog, a music theater adaptation of the Anton Chekhov short story, book and lyrics by Daniel Pinkerton, presented by Fortune’s Fool Theater in 2017; and C., a new musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, book and lyrics by Bradley Greenwald, presented by Theater Latté Da in 2016. 

Other theater composition includes Home For The Holidays with Kevin Kling and the Minnesota Orchestra and Persephone's Sister, the final piece in Nautilus' Ivey-Award-winning Sister Stories.

As an orchestrator/arranger,, he is the recipient of Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his work on the Broadway production of The Lion King.  He also arranged the music for Glensheen and Lord Gordon Gordon at The History Theater and A Night In Olympus at The Illusion Theater, all written by Jeff Hatcher and Chan Poling, as well as The History Theater's spring 2017 production of Sweet Land The Musical and SUNY Albany’s 2021 filmed production of Love And Other Destinations.

He has contributed orchestrations to over 150 film scores including those for Frida by Elliot Goldenthal (winner of the Academy Award for best music) as well as The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, Crazy Rich Asians, and  six of the Fast and Furious movies by Brian Tyler. Also listed on his ImDB page: three Alien movies, two Batman movies,  and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Concert work includes orchestrating André J. Thomas’ gospel choral works including his recent Mass—A Celebration of Love and Joy, adapting the music of Stephen Paulus for the world premiere of Jump with the Atlanta Symphony, and orchestrating Metallica’s Grammy Award-winning "The Call of Ktulu" and other songs from their album S&M, as well as orchestral arrangements for The New Standards with the Minnesota Orchestra and The Who with the Julliard Symphony.    He has been concert, film, and theater composer Elliot Goldenthal’s musical associate since 1987, and has also worked with film composers Brian Tyler, Michael Kamen, Klaus Badelt, Ilan Eshkeri, Edward Shearmur, James Newton Howard as well as many others.

He has been involved in projects that have won Academy,  Emmy,  Grammy, and Tony Awards as well as many other honors. 

He holds a doctorate in music composition from Yale University where he studied with composers Martin Bresnick and Jacob Druckman, a master's degree from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and a bachelor's degree in music from Carleton College.  He grew up in Southern California, lived in New York for 7 years, and currently lives in Minneapolis.

Photo: Rick Spaulding