John Du Prez

Biography

John Du Prez (born Trevor Jones, 14 December 1946) is a Grammy Award-winning British musician, conductor and composer who has scored over 20 feature films including A Fish Called Wanda, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I-III, and the cult classic UHF.

A Trevelyan Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford (Oriental Studies) 1966-70, he spent a year abroad on Chinese language study leave and became Principal Horn of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1976 he worked as a Music Lecturer at London University until 1979, when he entered the film industry composing additional music for Monty Python's Life of Brian. Working frequently with the Pythons and scoring movies for George Harrion's Handmade Films, he also played trumpet on many UK Top 40 hits with the UK Salsa band Modern Romance. The international success of A Fish Called Wanda took him to America, where he scored Weird Al' Yankovic's UHF and the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack album went platinum.

In October 2026, John is scheduled to conduct UHF Live-to-Screen at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, including a new specially composed Overture.

In 2001 he co-wrote Monty Python's Spamalot with Eric Idle, which won 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical and is currently enjoying a major US tour. His score for Spamalot was also Tony nominated. In 2011 he conducted Not the Messiah with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall for Monty Python's 40th Anniversary and was Music Director for Python's 2014 O2 Arena concerts. He recently scored the BAFTA Award-winning TV animation series The Clangers and now lives on the south coast of England. At age 79 he is still very active and has 3 new stage musicals, 2 feature films, and a choral requiem in development.

He is also known for his extensive collaborations with Monty Python, having worked on several films and shows by members of the troupe, including composing, conducting, and arranging for Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), Time Bandits (1981), Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), A Private Function (1984), Personal Services (1987), A Fish Called Wanda, Number 27 (both 1988), The Wind in the Willows (1996), Spamalot (2004), Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) (2010), and Monty Python Live (Mostly) (2014). For his work on Spamalot, which ran 1,575 performances on Broadway, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score.

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