(Los Angeles, CA- March 9, 2004) "The Passion of the Christ" continues its
miraculous momentum both as a film as well as the score. The original
soundtrack recording on Sony Music/Integrity (music by John Debney) is the
#1 selling soundtrack in its first full week of sales, according to
Billboard charts. The film continues its reign at the boxoffice with ticket
sales over 200 million dollars. This Thursday (3/11), Passion composer John
Debney will conduct the Biola University Chorale along with a musical
ensemble and
special guest vocalist Lisbeth Scott on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
(airing 11:35pm PST/EST)



The 30-voice choir with soloist Lisbeth Scott (who co-wrote the lyrics with
John Debney) will perform custom suite from "The Passion of The Christ"
which will include "Mary Goes To Jesus," "Raising The Cross" and "The
Resurrection." Also accompanying the selection will be ancient instruments
including Taiko drums, Tom Toms and World woodwinds.



"The Passion of The Christ" CD also tops Billboard's Contemporary Christian
chart and is number 19 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart.



The score is written by Award-winning film composer John Debney (Elf, The
Scorpion King, Bruce Almighty, Spy Kids). Referring to the score, director,
producer Mel Gibson commented, "It had to be an extraordinary piece of work,
something that helped the images. It had to tell a lot. John made my film
10 times better." Gibson lends his voice to the score's vocals and chants,
performing with the London Voices. Debney utilized an 80-piece London
orchestra to record the powerful score.



With a diverse list of film credits, John Debney utilizes both his classical
training and strong knowledge of contemporary sounds in order to adapt to
any assignment. In addition to his composing projects, Debney is a
supporter of classic film scores. Debney has embarked on a series of CD
recordings of classical film scores for Varese Saraband Records, conducting
works including "Superman," "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad", Titanic with
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra.