Biography
Composer/Producer ~ Music Director/Teacher
Doug’s scores for orchestra, choir, ensemble and electronics have been featured internationally in film, television, recordings, theatre and live performance. As a composer, arranger, pianist, producer and music director, Doug has had the pleasure of composing, arranging and performing with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Vancouver C.B.C Orchestra and members of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. Also the Elektra Women’s Choir, Vancouver Men’s Chorus, Vancouver Men’s Welsh Choir and the Vancouver Bach Children’s Choir.
In 2002 Doug was nominated for a Leo award in the category “best musical score” for Jack Silberman’s documentary film Bombies. In 1985 Doug was awarded a Genie nomination for his score for the feature film Walls. That same year he was honored with Yorkton Film Festival‘s Golden Sheaf Award for Best Original Score for the National Film Board‘s Hoppy: A Portrait of Elizabeth Hopkins. He has composed music for more then fifty films and numerous video productions, most recently, the scores for the award winning feature film Bowl of Bone, the documentary With One Heart and Social Gospel and the Public Good. (Vision Network)
In 1993, he was commissioned to compose and produce the score for the new Parliament Hill presentation, Symphony of Sound and Light – Reflections of Canada, an outdoor sound and light show presented nightly at the Parliament buildings in Ottawa. This massive project features the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, Elektra Women’s Choir, the Vancouver Children’s Choir, many ethnic musicians and vocalist Joëlle Rabu. Symphony of Sound and Light premiered in Ottawa on May 17, 1994, and played on Parliament Hill until 1999.
In 1990 he was commissioned by the Vancouver CBC Orchestra to compose and orchestrate a setting for John Gray’s The Fat Princess presented for UNICEF’s The Gift of Music. Audrey Hepburn and Mavor Moore hosted this national broadcast which feature the Vancouver Bach Children’s Choir.
As a performing artist, Doug tours internationally with chanteuse Joëlle Rabu as pianist and music director. As co-writer, composer, pianist and producer, Doug’s association with Joëlle has produced the orchestrated show Magic of the Music Hall, featuring Joëlle Rabu and Symphony Orchestra, five albums, two world tours and hundreds of performances in venues ranging from concert halls to folk festivals.
In his two seasons as music director at Nanaimo’ Shakespeare Plus Festival, he wrote woodwind quintet settings for Romeo and Juliet and arranged the music for Irma la Douce and Cabaret. Other theatre music credits include Tonight… Piaf, John Gray’s Rock and Roll national tour (National Arts Centre), and Ted Galay’s epic play Tsymbaly.
During the summer of 2004 Doug was a member of the faculty of Aboriginal Arts at the Banff Centre as a instructor, music director and composer and is currently a member of the faculty at Malaspina University/College, Arts and First Nations Studies, Nanaimo B.C. Doug has also been a member of the Vancouver Island University faculty for 9 years, teaching Voice for the Stage 207 in the theatre department. He also teaches voice, piano, guitar and bass privately.
AWARDS
Leo Award Nomination, 2002 – Best Musical Score, Bombies, Documentary
Genie Award Nomination, 1985 – Best Original Score for a feature Walls.
Golden Sheaf Award, 1985 – Best Original Score, Yorkton Film Festival Hoppy – A Portrait of Elizabeth Hopkins. (N.F.B.)
Dora Award nomination, 2003 – Snappy Tales
Jessie Richardson Award, 1984- Outstanding Music Direction Piaf- Her Songs, Her Loves (Theatre)
Jessie Richardson Award Nominations:
1986 – Outstanding Music Direction – Tsymbaly,
1989 – Best Soundscape – Mona Lisa Toodle-oo
FILM SCORES COMPOSED AND PRODUCED
FEATURES
Bowl of Bone Turtle Productions
Terminal City Ricochet E-Motion Films
Walls Omni Films
Big Meat Eater BCD Entertainment
Skip Tracer Highlight Productions
Passion Highlight Productions
NATIONAL FILM BOARD
1.The Image Before Us
2.One of Many: Doctor Nhan
3.Mary of Mile 18
4.Bamboo, Lions, and Dragons
5.Wild in the City
6.Hoppy: A Portrait of Elizabeth Hopkins
7.Jack Hodgins’ Island
8.Jacks or Better
9.Out on a Limb
10.The Reluctant Deckhand
TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS
Hello, Goodbye Brat Productions
Robert Service Testar Productions
Forestry Highlight Productions
ICBC Highlight Productions
The Car Show Keane Productions
INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCTIONS
Bombies (P.B.S) Lumiere Prod. Jack Silberman
Anijam Int’l Rocketship
No Vacancy Cloudfire Productions
Raquetball Mercury Pictures Phil Borsos
New Seed Petra Productions
Painting With Fire Catherine Hahn/N.F.B.
Spilsbury’s Coast A.R.T. Bookworld Productions
Community in Action Northern Lights Media
Aga Khan Northern Lights Media
Living the Difference Pomerleau
T.I.A. Yellowknife Films
Not Just A Place To Live Iris Media
The Great Ocean Dream Machine
Matsqui-Inside Out Peter Smilsky
Rod & Company Pitcairn Pictures
African Day Rob Allan
Someday My Prince Will Come Reel Feelings
With One Heart Alethia Productions
Social Gospel & the Public Good Getaway Films Inc.
Polio Hunters Lumiere Prod. Jack Silberman
ALBUMS PRODUCED
Heart of the Night Joëlle Rabu RME
Tonight…Piaf Joëlle Rabu RME
Passport Joëlle Rabu Goldrush
Joëlle Rabu Joëlle Rabu Goldrush
Piaf-Her Songs, Her Loves Joëlle Rabu CSP
Noël with / avec Joëlle Joëlle Rabu RME
Hold Me Joëlle Rabu RME
Strange Ritual Karen Melady Indie
Yeo-West Clem Yeo-West Indie
Shake Me A Martini Elizabeth Ryan Indie
Joan Wallace Joan Wallace Indie
Reflections of Canada Various Goldrush for the Capital Commission of Canada
Random Acts of Senseless Kindness Haley Breedlove Indie/Single
COMMISSIONED COMPOSITIONS
The Fat Princess Vancouver CBC Orchestra
Brass Quintet Cornucopia
Magic of the Music Hall RME Productions
People Canadian Red Cross
Symphony of Sound & Light National Capital Commission
A Christmas Fantasy Van. Island Symphony
THEATRICAL MUSIC DIRECTION/COMPOSITION
A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline Chemainus Theatre Festival
Tonight…Piaf ( Joëlle Rabu ) RME Productions
A Christmas Carol [vocal coach] Chemainus Theatre Festival
Piaf, Her Songs, Her Loves City Stage
John Gray’s Rock and Roll National Arts Centre / V.E.C.C.
Mona Lisa Toodle-oo New Play Centre
Tsymbaly Ted Galay / New Play Centre
As You Like It Sudbury Theatre Centre
Lysistrada Langara College Studio 58
A Christmas Carol Richmond Gateway Theatre
One in a Million Green Thumb Theatre
Glory Days Fraser Valley College
Piaf, Her Songs, Her Loves City Stage, Vancouver
Cabaret Shakespeare Plus Fest. Nanaimo
Romeo & Juliet Shakespeare Plus Fest. Nanaimo
Irma La Douce Shakespeare Plus Fest. Nanaimo
Taming of the Shrew Shakespeare Plus Fest. Nanaimo
Walls Arts Club / New Play Centre
Hot Rods and Heavy Water Touchstone Theatre
We Too Malaspina College
Beggars’ Opera Malaspina College
Trivial Deceit Malaspina College
Lysistrada Malaspina College
A Good Woman Malaspina College
Some Kind of Savior Tamahnous Theatre
Red Emma East Side Theatre Front Society
Net City East Side Theatre Front Society
Diner At the Edge of the Galaxy Kaleidoscope Theatre
Callandish Kaleidoscope Theatre
The Ant And The Grasshopper Kalaidoscope Theatre
Cowboy King Caravan Farm Theatre
The Winter Rose Caravan Farm Theatre
A Christmas Carol Caravan Farm Theatre
Good Woman of Saskatchewan Caravan Farm Theatre
Caucasian Chalk Circle Caravan Stage Company
Law of the Land Caravan Farm Theatre
The Man From Ottawa Caravan Farm Theatre
Hot Flashes TheatreOne, Nanaimo
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid U.B.C. Theatre Dept.
Oh What A Lovely War Vancouver Island University
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Dear Mr Dodd
This is just a (very belated) fan letter to express my admiration for your “Skip Tracer” soundtrack. The movie was a moving exercise in exquisitely controlled melancholy, but it wouldn’t have been half as good without your music.
And now that I’ve discovered all your other works, I shall try to absorb as many as possible, as soon as possible!
Kindest regards
Miss Blanaid McKinney
Enniskillen
Northern Ireland