Sir Anthony Hopkins to release debut album inspired by his childhood

Image source, PA Media Image caption, The Silence of the Lambs star has composed music since his childhood By Holly Harrison BBC Wales Published 10 July 2026, 17:06 BST Updated 18 minutes ago Sir Anthony Hopkins will release his first album next month featuring a collection of classical pieces he has worked on for six decades. The Oscar-winning actor said he had been composing music "all my life", and that "music was my first desire, my first wish". The first single from the 88-year-old's album, titled Life Is A Dream, was released on Friday, and was inspired by his childhood memories of Margam in south Wales. The Port Talbot-born star, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, has written his own music since childhood, and began playing the piano at the age of four. Image source, PA Media Image caption, Life Is A Dream will be released on 21 August The single, Bracken Road from Hopkins' 1947: Suite For Solo Piano And Orchestra, was influenced by the streets, meadows, farmland and mountains that surrounded the star's family home in the 1940s. Sir Anthony composed the music in 1963 when he was a young actor at the Liverpool Playhouse. "Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them," Sir Anthony said. "My whole life is a dream," he added, describing signing with the Decca Classics record label as "the honour of a lifetime". Sir Anthony's music is performed by Grammy Award-winning conductor Gustavo Dudamel with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and will reflect on his life growing up in Wales and his family. He said: "My deepest gratitude and respect go to Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, whose artistry is an integral part of this musical journey. "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." Image caption, Other pieces on the album draw on Sir Anthony's memories of childhood visits with his grandfather and the cinema that first caught his imagination Laura Monks, president of Decca Classics, said the team had been "thrilled" to work with "such a legend". "There has been a complete energy in the office, everyone buzzing with excitement because we are helping him deliver on a life long dream", she told BBC Radio Wales Drive. Monks, who witnessed Hopkins recording the albumm said the team had goosebumps on their arms and his "life long knowledge" of classical music was clear to those in the room. "He was listening to the music intently, he was giving notes, it was just really a special and unique thing to see," she said. Sir Anthony continues to pay tribute to Wales on another of the album's tracks, My Fatherland. He said he wrote the piece to "honour my humble beginnings", adding "I am the son of my father, the baker". Other compositions on the album draw on memories of Port Talbot, childhood vi