Anthony Hopkins signs record deal at 88, to release debut album of original compositions in August

A record deal decades in the making

Anthony Hopkins, the 88-year-old Oscar-winning actor known for "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Father", has signed with Decca Classics. His first album of original compositions, "Life Is a Dream", collects pieces he has worked on for six decades and will be released on August 21. The debut single, "Bracken Road", taken from his "1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra", was released on Friday, July 10.

Music was my first desire, my first wish. 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.

The music and its inspirations

The album draws heavily on Hopkins' Welsh roots. "Bracken Road", composed in 1963 while he was a young actor at the Liverpool Playhouse, is inspired by childhood memories of Margam, South Wales, evoking the streets, meadows, farmland, and mountains surrounding his family home in the 1940s. Another track, "My Fatherland", honours traditional Welsh melodies. "I am the son of my father, the baker," Hopkins said of the piece. Other compositions on the album are inspired by cinema, his wife, and his niece.

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.

A lifetime of composing

Hopkins began playing piano at age four and was composing music for local plays as a teenager. Entirely self-taught, he received a Classic Brit Award in 2012 for his contribution to "And the Waltz Goes On". In 2025, he made his live musical performance debut in Saudi Arabia with a concert of "Life Is a Dream". The new album fulfils what he has called his first desire.

Collaboration and performance

The album is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Grammy-winning conductor Gustavo Dudamel, with soloists Gregorio Nieto on cello and Sergio Tiempo on piano. Recording sessions took place in London. Decca president Laura Monks described the sessions as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience".

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.