Ilan Eshkeri began his eclectic career at Leeds and hasn’t slowed down since. He returns to the place it all began with a collaboration at Light Night 2025.
Ilan Eshkeri (Music and English 1999) has earnt the privilege to work on projects that catch his eye.
He’s created music for the biggest films, TV series, video games, ballets, concerts, audiobooks, and documentaries in the world. By the age of 27, he’d written the entire score for Layer Cake, a film which went on to become a cult classic. By the age of 34, he counted Stardust, Johnny English Reborn, The Young Victoria, and Coriolanus among his back catalogue. He’s conducted a 90-piece orchestra at the Louvre in Paris – and he’s performed to thousands at the Rudolfinum in Prague and the Royal Albert Hall in London.
But he still doesn’t pass up the opportunity to return to Leeds.
“They use my music in graduation ceremonies, which I feel very privileged about,” Ilan says. “I also come along to do a talk once a year to music students.
“When I was asked if I’d be interested in working on a piece for Light Night, it was really exciting.”
Light Night Leeds, the UK’s largest annual arts and lights festival, takes place in the city and on campus on 22 and 23 October. Ilan’s collaboration with projection artist Paul Miller is called Harmonia, and will be situated in Clothworkers’ Concert Hall. They use live choral sound, music and a dramatic projection to explore the cyclical, and fragile nature of life on earth. “I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s going to be a really immersive experience, and quite an extraordinary sensory journey. There’s a huge amount of work going into it.”
That’s nothing new for Ilan. His career took off whilst he studied at the University, and he’s taken little pause for breath in the intervening 26 years.
Film soundtracks hadn’t always been the plan – he took up guitar aged 13 with visions of being in a rock band – but he was soon drawn to cinema at Leeds. He looks back fondly on his time in the music department studying music technology under Professor David Cooper (Music 1978) and composition under Philip Wilby (DMus 1997). “The technology room was in the attic of a terrace building, so it was a very homemade experience,” he says. “It was such an important time for me, and I picked up a lot of wisdom and nuggets.
“I was exceptionally driven, which was partly why things moved so quickly. Many of my friends were enjoying their 20s, but I was focussed on work. It resulted in a lot of success at a young age, but as I tell students now, maybe that could have waited.”
His break came after fortuitous introductions to Ed Shearmur and then Michael Kamen, who were already big-name composers working in Hollywood. Ilan was soon peering over the shoulders of masters in London studios as he made tea, set up computers and copied music. He learnt quickly, and when he was living in Oxley Hall, he had his first short film commission.
“The other key thing I learnt at Leeds was storytelling,” Ilan adds. “Studying literature as well as music was so important to me when I started working in film. When I take on graduates, many of whom come from Leeds, I emphasise that understanding narrative structure and storytelling is crucial. Your job is to describe the emotional narrative, and you need to understand storytelling to do that properly.”
It is a skill Ilan was able to hone alongside creative giants. “I think comedy is the most difficult discipline,” says Ilan. “Rowan Atkinson taught me a lot during Johnny English Reborn. He was hands on about every detail of the entire score, the timing, what happens if we do this… or that? We scored Johnny English seriously instead of ‘playing’ the jokes – if the film makers mock the protagonist, you can’t expect the audience to care about them. The music plays Johnny’s point of view, and that’s what makes the comedy.”
Ilan is also synaesthetic – a neurological condition in which colours, music and patterns merge in his mind – which gives him a unique approach to the creative process. He recalls listening to his mother play piano as a young boy, and seeing colours with each note – something he didn’t realise was different at the time. “I associate colours with timbre – so strings are blue, woodwinds are green, brass is red. It helps me, and it means my approach is quite unconventional.”
After moving away from film in recent years – citing the benefit of greater independence, and the need to diversify – Ilan has taken on a range of projects. He’s composed for video games, most notably popular life simulation game The Sims. He’s collaborated with Matt Bellamy from Muse on an audiobook of George Orwell’s 1984, and produced television scores with David Attenborough. His spell-binding show “Space Station Earth” – which depicts the emotional journey of astronauts travelling to the International Space Station – sold out the Royal Albert Hall and is set for new tour dates. He composed the music for new TV show House of Guinness, which was released at the end of September 2025.
“I try to do one project at a time, and I choose projects that really interest me,” Ilan says. “I use a small team, which usually includes myself and one or two graduates starting out. I look for work which is pushing the envelope of what we can do.
“That’s exactly what we’re doing with this piece at Leeds. We’re creating a unique, live experience.
“It’s an added bonus that it will bring me back to campus where it all began.”
Further information
Plan your visit to Light Night Leeds
After welcoming more than 13,000 visitors to campus for 2024’s Light Night Leeds, this year’s programme marks the launch of Open Up – an exciting new box office site that makes it easier for the public to discover, book and enjoy cultural events at the University. The full University Zone programme is available at openup.leeds.ac.uk.
Follow Ilan on social media for upcoming Space Station Earth tour dates.
Watch the official trailer to Ilan’s latest TV show House of Guinness.
For more information, email Ed Newbould, Digital Communications Officer at the University of Leeds, at e.w.newbould@leeds.ac.uk.