In an unusual composer spotlight, industry magazine Variety focuses four articles on composer John Debney this month. Jon Burlingame and Iain Blair has written the pieces, and in one of them Debney talks about the expanded version of his “Passion Oratorio,” based on his Passion of the Christ film score. The work is scheduled to be performed in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican in June next year, by a 500-voice choir and 100-piece orchestra conducted by Candace Wicke, with soloist Lisbeth Scott returning for the vocal solo parts.

John Debney is one of the busiest composers in Hollywood. Among his best known scores are Sin City, Bruce Almighty, The Passion of the Christ, Liar Liar, End of Days, Elf and I Know What You Did Last Summer. In one of the Variety articles, Burlingame notes that “at 53, John Debney is one of just a handful of feature film composers today who worked his way up the system.” One of the pieces concentrates on director collaborations, among them Jon Favreau for whom is currently scoring Iron Man 2. “I hadn’t worked with Jon for a couple of years, and we jumped right back in as if we’d never stopped working together,” Favreau comments.

Link: Variety spotlight on John Debney.