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* WINNER of 'Prix de la Meilleure Adaptation Musicale Film’ at the 37th annual World Festival of Underwater Pictures in Marseille, France (2010) - "Into the Dragon's Lair"
* Nominated for Best Original Music Score at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival in California, USA (2010) - "Into the Dragon's Lair" * WINNER of the John Joubert Cup for Composition (2004) - "Phoenix" and "Love's Secret" |
Biography
Kevin Smuts is an award-winning film score composer specializing in music for Films, Documentaries, and Commercials. Now entering his eleventh year in the industry, Kevin continues to impress his clients with his ability to understand emotion and enhance the story of each production he works on.
Whilst completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, Kevin also began a short apprenticeship with composer Grant McLachlan. Assisting Grant at the recording of the soundtrack for "Faith Like Potatoes" was the beginning of Kevin's journey into the South African music and film industries. Grant introduced Kevin to the Foster Brothers while working on "Sharkman", and this meeting began a fantastic working relationship that produced many more standalone documentary films, as well as the well known and award-winning trilogy on crocodiles ("Into the Dragon's Lair"; "Touching the Dragon"; "The Dragon's Feast").
The Foster Brothers highly recommended Kevin to the Natural History Unit of Africa, who went on to commission Kevin to compose scores for many of their documentaries and series. Once clients began to refer Kevin to their colleagues, more agencies, production houses and independent film makers started contacting Kevin to compose music for their productions (see Filmography for a more detailed list of the productions Kevin has worked on).
Whilst completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, Kevin also began a short apprenticeship with composer Grant McLachlan. Assisting Grant at the recording of the soundtrack for "Faith Like Potatoes" was the beginning of Kevin's journey into the South African music and film industries. Grant introduced Kevin to the Foster Brothers while working on "Sharkman", and this meeting began a fantastic working relationship that produced many more standalone documentary films, as well as the well known and award-winning trilogy on crocodiles ("Into the Dragon's Lair"; "Touching the Dragon"; "The Dragon's Feast").
The Foster Brothers highly recommended Kevin to the Natural History Unit of Africa, who went on to commission Kevin to compose scores for many of their documentaries and series. Once clients began to refer Kevin to their colleagues, more agencies, production houses and independent film makers started contacting Kevin to compose music for their productions (see Filmography for a more detailed list of the productions Kevin has worked on).
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One of the feature films which the Foster Brothers made in 2010 was titled "My Hunter's Heart". They commissioned multi award-winning composer Trevor Jones to write the score for the film, and asked Kevin to assist Trevor at the recording of the sound track, including preparing all the parts for the players at the orchestral recording sessions. Andrew Dudman from Abbey Road Studios was the audio engineer on the project, and Kevin spent time in the booth with him, as well as in the recording space with Trevor and the orchestra. Both incredibly valuable experiences for him.
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Andrew Dudman, Kevin Smuts and Trevor Jones (2010)
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In 2008, Kevin wrote the music for his first television commercial. After it was received so well by both the agency and the client, more commercial pitches began to come his way. Since then Kevin has worked with many major South African and international brands, including writing music for the first live television commercial to ever be produced and performed in the country.
In 2016, Kevin was commissioned by Tauana Films to compose the score for their six-part series: "Saving Sirga". It was a mammoth project with over 4 hours of music needing to be composed, recorded and produced in less than 2 months. With everything else going on in Kevin's schedule it was an impossible task to tackle alone. So he brought in his mentor, Grant McLachlan, as well as a new up-and-coming composer, Matthew Dennis, to help with this large undertaking. They worked incredibly hard and long hours, but eventually they accomplished their goal, and are all very proud of the final product, as are the filmmakers.
In 2016, Kevin was commissioned by Tauana Films to compose the score for their six-part series: "Saving Sirga". It was a mammoth project with over 4 hours of music needing to be composed, recorded and produced in less than 2 months. With everything else going on in Kevin's schedule it was an impossible task to tackle alone. So he brought in his mentor, Grant McLachlan, as well as a new up-and-coming composer, Matthew Dennis, to help with this large undertaking. They worked incredibly hard and long hours, but eventually they accomplished their goal, and are all very proud of the final product, as are the filmmakers.
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Another important contact which Kevin made through Grant, was meeting the multi Grammy award-winning and Oscar nominated arranger and composer, Jeremy Lubbock. After living and working in England and The United States for many decades, Jeremy decided to retire and call Cape Town home. Though he is retired, he still composes songs and orchestral works for many singers, conductors and producers around the world. Kevin is Jeremy's technical assistant, and helps to maintain his studio's software and some hardware. Over the years, Kevin has gleaned much knowledge from Jeremy about his career in LA; including expertise of arranging, as well as working with big artists and large studios. Kevin has had the privilege of sharing some of his work with Jeremy in order to receive comment, and this has been invaluable to Kevin.
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Jeremy Lubbock and Kevin Smuts (2017)
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