Ceiri Torjussen (born 1976) is a composer who has contributed music to dozens of film and television productions in the U.S.
His music was described by the Los Angeles Times as a “sudden bolt of creative lightning”, and he was hailed in a UK newspaper as one of the brightest British musical talents in recent history. Similarly, in the last few years, he has made a sudden but marked impact on the world of film music in Los Angeles, with an enviable list of high-profile credits to his name.
Torjussen was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1976 and is a fluent Welsh speaker. Showing a passion for music from an early age, he started playing the trumpet and piano at the age of eight, and began composing soon after. Although formally trained in classical music, he played in and arranged for various soul, jazz, funk and disco bands and began scoring TV documentaries whilst still in high school. In addition to the main canon of western music from the Middle Ages to the present, his musical interests have included a special love for jazz, electronic music, and for certain non-western music, especially Indonesian Gamelan and Indian classical music, the result of seven months teaching and traveling the Indian subcontinent in 1995. Following his travels, he gained his Bachelors degree in Composition at the University of York, UK, with a First Class Honours and his Masters at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Ceiri Torjussen has scored six feature films to date. In 2006 Undoing, a noir-thriller, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Mentor, starring Rutger Hauer, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Most recently he composed additional, heart-thumping action music for the 2007 blockbuster, Live Free or Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis. His music demonstrates an expansive creative range and versatility, being at home in all genres, including horror (Dracula III: Legacy, Soul’s Midnight, and additional music for Underworld: Evolution) and comedy (Funky Monkey and additional music for Scary Movie II). No stranger to television, he provided additional music for the WB TV show Glory Days, the CBS network shows Cold Case and Close to Home, and for the series Dead Like Me, on Showtime. Torjussen has also worked extensively in animation, composing music for high-profile animated shows such as Ni Hao Kailan (Nickelodeon), and for Mike Young Productions’ Max and the Mechanicals, The Mr. Men and Dive Olly Dive for which he received a 2007 Daytime Emmy Nomination for Best Original Score.
Torjussen has also orchestrated and conducted on numerous studio feature films such as The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot, Hellboy, Cheaper by the Dozen, Joyride, Blade II, When a Stranger Calls, Dracula 2000 and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. He is equally at home with the orchestra as he is with electronic music. His Wenallt Studios is fully equipped with 96-bit digital recording capabilities, state-of-the-art sound synthesis software, and an additional room dedicated to tracking live ensembles and vocals.
Torjussen has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, in addition to scholarships from the British Arts Council, S4C, and the Welsh American Foundation. He won the Composers Medal at the Urdd National Eisteddfod three times, and received the Daily Telegraph Jazz Arrangers Award, as well as many other prizes for his composition and jazz playing. In 1999 he was honored with one of the highest musical achievements in Britain by winning the Composers’ Medal at the Welsh National Eisteddfod. In 2000 he was made a ‘White Druid of the Island of Britain’ for his services to Welsh music, and was the subject of a TV documentary. His orchestral work, Momentum, has been performed widely, notably by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and been conducted by such figures as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Grant Llewelyn. Torjussen has had numerous concert commissions from a variety of ensembles, some of which have been recorded and broadcast on Radio and TV in Europe and the US. His work has been recorded and released commercially and performed worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany, France and India. Recent other commissions include a work for four percussionists, based on Afro-Cuban rhythms, a work for 50-voice choir, and an upcoming new work for Player Piano to be released on CD in 2008. He resides in Los Angeles.