Hamish Oliver - Composer Hamish Oliver - Composer

Biography



Hamish has enjoyed a 25-year-long career as a composer, sound designer, musical director, arranger and performer for television, film, video games and theatre, and has a Master's degree in composition. He lectures in music composition/arranging/production and game audio at Canterbury University, and has previously taught at Ara Music Arts, NASDA, and MAINZ. In 2015 Hamish was the recipient of an $10,000 APRA Professional Development Award to further his career in music composition for video games.

As a performer Hamish has toured Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand with Elaine Paige, Aled Jones and Hayley Westenra and has performed with Serj Tankian, Shapeshifter, Tiki Taane, Bic Runga, Julia Deans, Anika Moa, The Adults, Michael Barrymore, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra among others. He features on the DVDs "Elaine Paige Live - Celebrating 40 Years on Stage", "Hayley Westenra Live in Concert", and on Serj Tankian's "Elect The Dead Symphony" live concert DVD. He plays piano and celeste for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and has had several composition commissions from them.

Hamish has composed for several TV series, many short films and documentaries, a feature film, and has been composing music and creating sound designs for plays at The Court Theatre since 1997.

His arrangements have been performed by The Phoenix Foundation, Alien Weaponry, Shapeshifter, Tiki Taane, Julia Deans, Anika Moa, and most of the major orchestras in New Zealand.

His areas of interest include the composition and implementation of adaptive music for video games, music for film, MIDI and other forms of digital music control, and instruments such as the duduk and the ney.
Hamish Oliver - Composer