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John Debney scores Hanna Montana: The Movie
6-Apr-2009 -

 
Award-winning composer John Debney scores Disney’s
Hanna Montana: The Movie, directed by Peter Chelsom.
The family comedy stars Miley Cyrus, alongside her dad
Billy Ray Cyrus. Debney created a new love theme for the
film and integrated the score with Miley’s songs to create
a unified sound throughout the film. He wove the song
tracks and score to play simultaneously, creating a
seamless marriage between the two. Debney’s approach
to the score is rural and contemporary. Debney wrote
the orchestral arrangement to “Butterfly Fly Away,”
performed by Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, written by the
Grammy-winning songwriting team of Glen Ballard and
Alan Silvestri. Last month at the Burbank International
Film Festival, Debney was honored with an an
Achievement in Music Award, and a medley of his scores
was performed at the closing night award ceremony.
Other winners at the festival included Patricia Neal with
a Lifetime Achievement Award and Fred Willard with
an Achievement in Film Award.

Recently Debney completed the score to another family,
fun-filled film, Hotel For Dogs.
Last year, Debney set the tone to the dramatic film
THE STONING OF SORAYA M. (adapted from the New
York Times best seller), which received critical acclaim
at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.
Currently Debney is scoring the latest Eddie Murphy
comedy, A THOUSAND WORDS. His other credits
include THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, for which he
received an Oscar nomination; IDLEWILD,
a Prohibition-era musical starring the duo Outkast
and featuring famed trumpeter Arturo Sandoval;
the animated films BARNYARD and CHICKEN LITTLE;
the comic-book inspired SIN CITY, and the comedies
ELF and LIAR, LIAR.

Debney’s ability to deliver the perfect score in a
wide variety of films has made him one of the most
sought after composers in Hollywood, leading him
to work with several directors multiple times.
For Garry Marshall, Debney scored the black
comedy, GEORGIA RULE, PRINCESS DIARIES 1 & 2,
and RAISING HELEN; for Tom Shadyac, he
scored BRUCE ALMIGHTY and EVAN ALMIGHTY.

In addition to an Academy Award nomination,
John Debney has received several Emmy awards,
a Dove award for THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST,
a CUE award for the score to the videogame LAIR
and several gold and platinum selling albums,
including THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST and
THE PRINCESS DIARIES. Debney was the youngest
recipient of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award for
Career Achievement, and has conducted concerts
of his music with orchestras throughout the
United States and Europe.

In HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE, Hannah
Montana's popularity begins to take over her life.
Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), at the urging of her
father (Billy Ray Cyrus), takes a trip to her
hometown of Crowley Corners, Tennessee to get
perspective on what matters the most in life.
 
The music is available from Amazon.com. 



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