Anthony Hopkins is to release a new album of classical music – at the age of 88.
On Thursday, representatives from Decca Classics announced that the two-time Academy Award-winning actor will unveil Life Is a Dream – an album of orchestral works written across more than six decades – on 21 August.
“Music was my first desire, my first wish,” he exclaimed. “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.”
Hopkins, who has composed music since he was a child, went on to thank conductor Gustavo Dudamel for offering his guidance.
“My deepest gratitude and respect go to Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, whose artistry is an integral part of this musical journey,” the Welsh star continued. “With the graceful precision of his baton, he transformed each note with profound and indelible meaning, creating a pictorial landscape that invites the listener to feel and imagine something uniquely personal.”
Previously, one of Hopkins’s compositions, And the Waltz Goes On, was included on a 2011 André Rieu album of the same name. The Silence of the Lambs actor also hosted a gala concert in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in January 2025.
Bracken Road from Hopkins’s 1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra was released on Friday.
The composition was originally conceived by the Hollywood legend when he was a young actor at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1963.
“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 synopsis reads.
Hopkins published his memoir, We Did OK, Kid, in November 2025.
