Rupert Cross
Rupert studied music composition at the University of Southampton with Michael Finnissy where he won the Lytell Prize, the Edward Wood Award and achieved first class honours.
Selected Credits
He received scholarships from the Laurin and Arthur Glaze Trust and the AHRC for postgraduate composition study with Julian Anderson at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he achieved distinction.
Recently Rupert has co-composed the original scores to the Netflix show ‘Everything Now’ and the game ‘Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’ for Warner Bros/Rocksteady Studios.
As a solo artist Rupert has released the albums ‘Music for Three Plays’ and ‘Smart Shoes’ on Besant Hall Records. He has also released the EPs ‘RUCA’ and ‘RUCA II: Holding Down Court’, a collaboration with the artist C.A.R., on the same label in 2020 and 2023 respectively.
Since 2013, Rupert has regularly collaborated with DJs Ivan Smagghe [Kill The DJ/ Les Disques De La Mort] and Tim Paris [Marketing Records] on albums, EP’s, singles and remixes. His ongoing partnership with Smagghe, as Smagghe & Cross, has led to the albums ‘Ma’ and ‘1819’ on Offen Music, ‘Timothy Dalton’ on Idle Press Records, and the EP’s ‘Talking to Katz’ on Ransom Note records and ‘Mmmmmmm’ on Huntley + Palmers. His remix of ‘Manureva’ by Alain Chamfort with Smagghe was used in the Chanel Haute Couture Spring/ Summer 2016 show at Paris Fashion Week by Karl Lagerfeld. He has released two albums with Tim Paris, ‘Music for Film, TV & Radio’ on Magnetic Records in 2016 and ‘Mechanism’ on Village Green Recordings, the latter making Rough Trade’s album of the month.
In 2016, Rupert composed original music for the Donmar Warehouse’s production of ‘Faith Healer’ directed by Lyndsey Turner. In 2017, Rupert collaborated with Lyndsey again, this time at the Almeida Theatre with an original score for ‘The Treatment’ by Martin Crimp. Rupert also collaborated with the Donmar again in 2017 in their production of ‘Limehouse’ directed by Polly Findlay. In November 2017, Rupert composed the original score to Kenneth Branagh’s production of ‘Hamlet’ starring Tom Hiddleston. He has also composed scores for ‘Frozen’ at Theatre Royal Haymarket, starring Surrane Jones, and the RSC production of ‘Macbeth’ which was broadcast live across UK cinemas.
He has written original scores to the films ‘Some Of Us’, directed by Toby Clarke, and ‘Calm’ directed by Kwame Lestrade, as well as collaborations with director Carolina Giammetta on ‘Medium of Exchange’ and ‘An Item’ for ArtsEd in London. Between 2010 and 2015, Rupert worked as an Assistant and Music Programmer for Patrick Doyle at both Shepperton Studios and 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles for the films ‘Cinderella’, ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’, ‘Brave’, ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’, ‘Thor’ and ‘La Ligne Droite.’
As an orchestrator and arranger he has worked on concerts for artists including Kanye West, Jarvis Cocker, Marianne Faithfull and The Residents.