Lalo Schiffrin

Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (b. 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestrations. Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires, to a Jewish family. His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón for three decades. Although Schifrin studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, it was music that captured his attention. At age 20, he successfully applied for a scholarship to the Conservatoire de Paris. At night, he played jazz in the Paris clubs. After returning home to Argentina in his twenties, Schifrin formed a jazz orchestra, a 16-piece band that became part of a popular weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV. While in New York in 1960, Gillespie invited Schifrin to fill the vacant piano chair in his quintet. Schifrin immediately accepted and moved to New York City. Schifrin moved to Los Angeles and became a U.S. resident in 1963. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1969. He has written more than 100 scores for films and television. Among the classic scores are Mission Impossible, The Fox, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, The Cincinnati Kid, Tango, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3, After the Sunset. In the 1990s, he wrote many of the arrangements for The Three Tenors concerts. One of Schifrin's most recognizable and enduring compositions is the theme music for the long-running TV series Mission: Impossible. It is a distinctive tune written in the uncommon 5/4 time signature. Similarly, Schifrin's theme for the hugely successful Mannix private eye TV show was composed a year later in a 3/4 waltz time; Schifrin composed several other jazzy and bluesy numbers over the years as additional incidental music for the show. In 2019, he received an Honorary Oscar "in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring."