Schaun Tozer is a multi award winning Composer and Producer whose music scores for film and television include the Academy Award shortlisted film Facing Ali, the Emmy Award winning film Mighty Jerome, and Canadian classics Da Vinci’s Inquest, Hard Core Logo, and Intelligence. He has won “Best Music” Leo Awards for Intelligence, Rabbit, The Romeo Section, No Clue, Blood Relative, I Am Bruce Lee, Mighty Jerome, Fathers & Sons, Terminal City, and My Father’s Angel, and he has been nominated in all Leo Award music categories twelve times. From Toronto, Schaun has also received a Canadian Screen Award “Best Original Music” nomination for The Romeo Section, and Gemini Award “Best Music” nominations for Intelligence and The Life. He won the Dolby Sound Award at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Off Key, and he was the first recipient of the “Christopher Dedrick Award for Live Musicians in Media Soundtracks”. Schaun recently scored Thomas Chretien’s latest film Devoured, winner of the 2022 Best Short film at the IndieX International Film Festival, Los Angeles.
Several of Schaun’s film projects are also available as soundtrack albums and reflect his broad and progressive interests in a wide variety of musical styles and genres. They include Intelligence, Mighty Jerome, the remix project Sidetracks, Blood Relative, Rabbit, Sports on Fire, The Good Son, and No Clue which features the Vancouver Film Orchestra.
Schaun’s early professional career began in London, England, and included work with orchestras, bands, ensembles, touring, teaching, and recording studios Abbey Road, Air Studios, and 2012 “Studio of the Year” Eastcote Productions with the late, great phenom engineer Philip Bagenal. Schaun joined the Lost Jockey ensemble, originally performing music by Steve Reich and Philip Glass, before transitioning into their own compositions which culminated in the Professor Slack recordings at Abbey Road studios. Between 1982 and 1986, Schaun was appointed ‘Composer-in-Residence’ for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and stimulated a host of projects which included the construction of a modern, purpose built recording studio, “The Steam Rooms,” specifically for unemployed youth in a particularly economically challenged borough in the UK.
Schaun’s early interest in film took off with two music scores for the late boundary-pushing experimental film director Stephen Dwoskin. As a keyboard player, Schaun’s performances included the BBC’s Almeida Steve Reich Festival, as well as label ZTT’s showcase week at London’s Ambassador Theatre, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, the Wigmore Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, London’s Africa Centre, and in a 2 piano duo with Mark Lockett. Schaun’s commissioned work included compositions for the Dreamtiger Ensemble, the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, and for media and sound artist Martin Riches at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin; and more recently Jonathan Harvey-In Memoriam for Britten Pears Arts.
Schaun co-founded the group Man Jumping, whose debut album Jump Cut garnered rave reviews and was a top ten album of the year selection by the Guardian, the Times, and Time Out. Man Jumping also branched out into the contemporary dance world with several commissions and European tours with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre Company and Second Stride Dance Company. Enduring interest in Man Jumping saw the remastering and rerelease of Jump Cut in 2017, the remastering and rerelease of 12” mixes in 2018, World Service in 2020, and the release of 3 Jump Cut remix albums in 2019 & 2020 by artists Bullion, Khidja, Reckonwrong, Gengahr, William Doyle, Low Island, and Gilligan Moss on vinyl and streaming outlets.
Schaun is an alumnus of the Guildhall School of Music, the University of Sussex with a B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in Music, and the University of California (San Diego) where he entered the Ph.d Music Composition program on a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship.
“Currently airing in 140 countries, Intelligence just might be one of the best dramas on TV…The cinematography, the sound, the editing, the music – this is how music is supposed to be used in a TV drama – are all first class”.
ALEX STRACHAN, Ottawa Citizen
“The series is scored by Schaun Tozer. His alt-rock soundtrack is unique and fits the scenes perfectly. Additionally, at no point did I notice the volume of the music over-ride the dialogue, as tends to be the case in many series. The score adds to the viewer’s experience of the story considerably. Very smart.”
RHIANNON BENEDICT, Einsiders.com
“Composer Schaun Tozer created a beautiful soundtrack that evokes an atmosphere of the film noir genre with a modern action movie edge.”
STACEY GILLARD, DNM Magazine
“Down But Not Out … a frenetic conclusion, all to a pulsating soundtrack by series composer Schaun Tozer.”
TV Review
“… an exotic fantasy garden of intriguing sounds… The style with which this series (Intelligence) is presented gives it an addictive quality, and a big part of that is the musical score by Schaun Tozer (Facing Ali). One can tend to take that for granted, because it is so well blended with the action, cutting in and out, heightening suspenseful scenes, and disappearing at times. The intriguing “instruments” (what’s the new word?) are a new breed of cat, sometimes sounding like a Sitar, and in this episode there is a sequence of what sounds like keyboard repetitive chording, a la Phillip Glass, but this was more interesting and melodic than that. Altogether, this episode was a standout for the musical score. The main theme of the series, by the “Sitar” as I call it, got a swinging percussive treatment that literally had me up on my feet dancing.”
MADELINE BRUCE, Canadian Dimension Magazine, Intelligent Commentary: Episode 8
“The standout original music of Schaun Tozer underscores an already compelling film.”
Seattle International Film Festival, 2009
“… beautifully shot and coupled with the always brilliant work of Composer Schaun Tozer, who gave us the grime-filled music for the Vancouver based TV series Da Vinci’s Inquest and Intelligence, as well as music for the film Hard Core Logo, you have all you need for a modern day noir.”
JAMES C, Renegade Cinema
“Superbly-crafted”,
JOHN DOYLE, Globe and Mail
“The final note is musical. Composer Schaun Tozer, who has worked on all of Haddock’s major projects, has created an outstanding musical score. His melodies underscore the movie’s dramatic tension and bring it to a compelling crescendo. The way the film has been edited lets the music’s power and cadence complete it as a piece of art.”
ALISON CUNNINGHAM, TV Times
“From Vancouver’s mean streets to its high-rise offices, Intelligence’s gritty realism is accented by Schaun Tozer’s moody score and cutting-edge alt-rock soundtrack.”
DIANE KRISTINE, TV-Eh