Amin Bhatia (born 10 July 1961,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England) is a Canadian-British recording artist, film, and television music score

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and producer. In 1981, his compositions won the

Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has fact ...

International Synthesizer competition for two consecutive years. The judges included

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, ...

Robert Moog Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesi ...

, Ralph Dyck, and

Isao Tomita , often known simply as Tomita, was a Japanese composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements. In addition to creating note-by-note rea ...

. The exposure led to projects with

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

Steve Porcaro Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of Jeff in 1992 and M ...

, and a solo album on

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

"Cinema label" called ''The Interstellar Suite'', which launched his career in music for film and television. Bhatia is known for lush

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l work with contemporary influences. His early compositions were created strictly with

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and tape, combining and layering several electronic parts to achieve a warm orchestral sound that was not sampled from an orchestra. In later years, Amin's strengths in both music and

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

programming led him to projects such as

John Woo John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gun fu ...

's ''Once a Thief'' and ''

Iron Eagle II ''Iron Eagle II'' (also titled ''Iron Eagle II: The Battle Beyond the Flag'') is a 1988 action film directed by Sidney J. Furie and written by Furie and Kevin Alyn Elders. It is the first sequel to the 1986 film '' Iron Eagle'', with Louis Gosse ...

''. Over the years Bhatia has moved into actual orchestral work with his film and television scores. The

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...

film ''Wild Chimpanzees'' features members of the Toronto Symphony and Opera Orchestras with songs recorded in Africa with

Johnny Clegg Jonathan Paul Clegg, (7 June 195316 July 2019) was a South African musician, singer-songwriter, dancer, anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist, some of whose work was in musicology focused on the music of indigenous South African people ...

. Other IMAX films include 'Mysteries of the Great Lakes', 'Wonders of the Arctic' which also features the voice of

Tanya Tagaq Tanya may refer to: * Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. * Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name * Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946) * List of Mortal Kombat characters#Tany ...

. Amin Bhatia has been awarded several

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

and

Gemini Awards The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States a ...

for his music score work in television, and an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nomination for the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

animated television series ''

Get Ed ''Get Ed'' is a computer-animated television series about a genetically engineered teenage delivery boy who fights industrial crime in Progress City. The show aired as a part of the Jetix programming block on the United States cable television ...

''. Bhatia's projects include the TV series '

Anne with an E ''Anne with an E'' (initially titled ''Anne'' for its first season within Canada) is a Canadian television series loosely Literary adaptation, adapted from Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1908 classic work of children's literature, ''Anne of Green Gables' ...

', '

X Company ''X Company'' is a Canadian/Hungarian spy thriller television series created by '' Flashpoint's'' Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern which premiered on February 18, 2015, on CBC Television. The series takes place during World War II, and foll ...

', '' Flashpoint'' with friend and longtime collaborator Ari Posner, as well as contributions to ''Handmaid's Tale''. He has also worked as a consultant or programmer to many synthesizer companies including Roland Corporation, Q Sound,

Arturia Arturia is a French electronics company founded in 1999 and based in Grenoble, France. The company designs and manufactures audio interfaces and electronic musical instruments, including software synthesizers, drum machines, analog synthesizers ...

, and Spectrasonics. Bhatia's recorded works include ''The Interstellar Suite'', ''Virtuality'', ''Requests from the Vault'', and ''The Planet: Music from the Films of David Lickley''. ''The Interstellar Suite'' was originally released in 1987 by the Capitol Cinema label, independently re-released in 2003, and in 2017 Amin Bhatia created The Interstellar Suite Anniversary Collector's Surround Sound Edition. ''Virtuality'' is a double

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

exploring the world within computers with guest artists including veterans Steve Porcaro and Patrick Moraz, as well as detailed liner notes written by synthesizer historian Mark Vail. In 2019 Bhatia released a synth retrospective called ''Requests from the Vault'', and ''The Planet: Music from the Films of David Lickley''.

Discography

Albums

* ''The Interstellar Suite'' * ''Virtuality'' * ''Requests from the Vault'' * ''Anne with a E Soundtrack''

Film

* ''Blood Honey'' (2017) * ''Wonders of the Arctic'' (2014) * ''Mysteries of the Great Lakes'' (2008) * ''Recipe for a Perfect Christmas'' (2005) * ''In the Dark'' (2003) * '' Rescue Heroes: The Movie'' (2003) * '' Detention'' (2003) * ''Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees'' (2002) * ''The Wandering Soul Murders'' (2001) * ''A Colder Kind of Death'' (2001) * ''

Under Heavy Fire ''Under Heavy Fire'', also known as ''Going Back'', is a 2001 American feature war film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Casper Van Dien, Jaimz Woolvett, Bobby Hosea, Joseph Griffin, Carre Otis, Kenneth Johnson, Daniel Kash, Martin K ...

'' (2001) * ''Gold Fever'' (1999) * ''

Gridlock'd ''Gridlock'd'' is a 1997 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall and starring Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, Lucy Liu, and Thandiwe Newton. It was the directorial debut of Curtis-Hall, who also has a small role in th ...

'' (1997) * '' Once a Thief'' (1996) * ''The Awakening'' (1995) * ''A Stranger in the Mirror'' (1993) * ''

Ordeal in the Arctic ''Ordeal in the Arctic'' is a television film written by Paul F. Edwards and directed by Mark Sobel. The film stars Richard Chamberlain, Catherine Mary Stewart, Melanie Mayron, Scott Hylands and Page Fletcher. The accident that ''Ordeal in the Ar ...

'' (1993) * ''

Black Ice Black ice, sometimes called clear ice, is a thin coating of glaze ice on a surface, especially on streets. The ice itself is not black, but visually transparent, allowing the often black road below to be seen through it. The typically low levels ...

'' (1992) * ''Café Romeo'' (1992) (additional music by Cos Natola) * ''Primo Baby'' (1990) * ''

'' (1988) * ''

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...

'' (1987)

Television

* '' Handmaid's Tale'' (2018) (additional music) * ''

Let's Go Luna! ''Let's Go Luna!'' is an educational animated children's television series created by Joe Murray for PBS Kids. Murray formerly worked on the Nickelodeon animated series ''Rocko's Modern Life'' and Cartoon Network animated series '' Camp Lazlo'' ...

'' (2018) * ''

'' (2017) * ''Blood and Fury: America's Civil War'' (2017) * ''

'' (2015) * '' Flashpoint'' (2008) * ''

'' (2005) * '' Queer as Folk'' (2005) * ''

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

'' (2003) * ''

Franny's Feet ''Franny's Feet'' is a children's animated television series created by Cathy Moss and Susin Nielsen. The show was produced by Decode Entertainment (now WildBrain) with the participation of Family Channel and in association with Channel Five ...

'' (2003) * ''

Corduroy Corduroy is a textile with a distinctively raised "cord" or wale texture. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between them. Both velvet and corduroy derive from fu ...

'' (2000-2001) * ''

The Zack Files ''The Zack Files'' is a science fiction television program based on a book series of the same name, written by Dan Greenburg. This series was shot in Toronto, Ontario. In August 2004, Goldhill Home Media released the first season on DVD. Plot The ...

'' (2000) * ''

Pingu ''Pingu'' is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerlan ...

'' (1995-2000) * '' Code Name: Eternity'' (1999) * ''

Power Play Power play or powerplay or their plurals may refer to: Sports * Power play (sporting term), a sporting term used in various games * Powerplay (cricket), a rule concerning fielding restrictions in one-day international cricket * Power play (cur ...

'' (1998) * '' Once a Thief'' (1997) * ''

Blazing Dragons ''Blazing Dragons'' is an animated television series created by Terry Jones and Gavin Scott, and produced by Nelvana and Ellipse Animation. A coinciding graphic adventure video game was released for the original PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 19 ...

'' (1996) * ''

Free Willy ''Free Willy'' is a 1993 American family drama film, directed by Simon Wincer, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Jennie Lew Tugend, written by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman from a story by Walker and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures ...

'' (1994) * ''

Tales from the Cryptkeeper ''Tales from the Cryptkeeper'' is an animated horror children's television series made by Canadian studio Nelvana. The series was broadcast on YTV in Canada and on ABC in the United States, and on ITV in the United Kingdom. It was based on th ...

'' (1993) * '' Kung Fu: The Legend Continues'' (1993)

References

External links

Official Website
* *
Amin Bhatia Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2022) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhatia, Amin 1961 births Living people Musicians from London Canadian television composers English television composers English male composers English film score composers English male film score composers Canadian Screen Award winners British emigrants to Canada