Anthony Hopkins isn’t just an Oscar-winning actor — for decades, he’s been composing music in addition to his acting roles. The “Silence of the Lambs” actor has signed with Decca Classics for a new recording project encompassing more than six decades of original compositions.
Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, his “Life Is a Dream” album will be released on Aug. 21. The first single, “Bracken Road,” from Hopkin’s “1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra,” was released Friday. “Inspired by childhood memories of Margam, South Wales, it is a nostalgic musical portrait of the streets, meadows, farmland and mountains that surrounded his family home in the 1940s,” Decca said.
Hopkins, 88, has been playing piano since the age of 4; he started performing Beethoven and Chopin just a few years later and composed music for local plays as a teenager, the label said.
“Music was my first desire, my first wish,” Hopkins said in a statement. “I’ve been composing music all my life. Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them.”
Other pieces on the album include “My Fatherland,” inspired by traditional Welsh melodies, and compositions inspired by cinema, his wife and his niece. Hopkins, a self-taught composer, recieved a Classic Brit Award in 2012 for Album of the Year for his contribution to “And the Waltz Goes On.” He made his live musical performance debut in Saudi Arabia in 2025 with the “Life Is a Dream” concert played by Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
