Award-winning composer Jonathan Elias has made his mark in the film and television industry, especially commercials, to which he introduced film scoring and sound design techniques, thus transforming the genre. Elias joined Sony Classical with the label’s release of his symphonic and choral prayer, Prayer Cycle (SK 60569), in March 1999.

Elias launched his compositional career with music for movie trailers, most notably Alien, Blade Runner, Gandhi, and Back to the Future. He soon began scoring television commercials and went on to score such films as Chaplin, Jagged Edge, and Parents. Among his other projects were the title song for 9 1/2 Weeks, the music for the Columbia Pictures logo and the original MTV logo. He regularly scores commercials for Coca Cola, Nike, Taco Bell and Levi’s.

In the mid 1980s, Elias produced his first solo album, Requiem for the Americas, a rock fable and tribute to the spirit of North American Indian culture. In this project he was inspired by the photography of Edward S.

Curtis, whose photographs document turn-of-the-century Native Americans and their way of life. This encounter with native Americans reverberates in Elias’ second solo album, Prayer Cycle, which grew out of a period of contemplation for the composer. The work is a response to his dark vision of humanity’s future: “Prayer is what we turn to when the only thing we have left is hope,” says Elias. Scored for orchestra and chorus, the cycle consists of nine meditations in which the original texts in English have been reinterpreted in many other languages by the artists. It is performed by a diverse array of artists, including Alanis Morissette, James Taylor, guitarist John Williams, Israeli composer Ofra Haza, Malinese musicians Mah Damba and Salif Keita, Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo, and the late Pakistani Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.