Legendary actor Anthony Hopkins is marking a new career milestone at 88.
The Oscar-winning star has released his debut single on Friday and will soon release an entire album of original classical music compositions.
The single, “Bracken Road,” is inspired by his childhood in south Wales, characterized by “streets, meadows, farmland and mountains.” His full album, titled Life Is a Dream, will be released by music label Decca Classics on August 21.
“Music was my first desire, my first wish, I’ve been composing music all my life,” the Silence of the Lambs actor said, according to the Guardian. “Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades, and I still find myself returning to them. My whole life is a dream. Signing with Decca is the honor of a lifetime.”
The album will include works spanning six decades of composition.
The Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel will perform the music accompanying Hopkins’s compositions. Hopkins said he is privileged to work with the artists.
“It has been a true privilege to collaborate with the distinguished Philharmonia Orchestra and the virtuoso soloists, cellist Gregorio Nieto and classical pianist Sergio Tiempo,” the actor said. “My deepest gratitude and respect go to maestro Gustavo Dudamel, whose artistry is an integral part of this musical journey.”
Decca, a classical music label, said that the album will be “revealing a composer whose music shares the same emotional depth and storytelling that define his screen career.”
Dudamel, a Grammy-winning conductor, said that he was struck by “beauty, craftsmanship, and the unmistakable sense of wonder” in Hopkins’s compositions.
“Sir Anthony Hopkins is one of those rare artists whose creative voice transcends any single medium. The same depth of imagination, humanity, and emotional truth that has defined his extraordinary work on stage and screen is present in his music,” Dudamel, 45, said in a statement.
Hopkins previously released a classical CD in 2015.
Hopkins has been playing the piano since age 4, and, according to Deadline, was performing Beethoven and Chopin just a few years later. As a teenager, he composed music for local plays.
The actor graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. Hopkins went on to have a prolific career in drama and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts in 1993.
