Sid Barnhoorn - Film Composer

PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY.. Composer Siddhartha Barnhoorn got into music when he was 17 years old. His first instrument was an old electric guitar. He learned to play by himself but playing along with the music of bands like Camel, Pink Floyd and Blind Guardian. After a year he started composing his own music using the guitar as his main instrument. In the first few years the main styles he composed in were rock and metal mixed with orchestral elements. He took a great interest in working with samples. With these samples he could create the sound of an orchestra. His main influences came from bands like Camel, Pink Floyd, Blind Guardian but also filmcomposers like John Williams, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and more.

Having worked with samples for a while, Sid composed his first concert piece in 2003: "Space Suite - The Undiscovered Journey". This was his first big epic orchestral piece which had a film music feel to it. After hearing a lot of comments about his music sounding like film and game music, he started thinking about actually composing for film. A friend of his got him into contact with an animator and gave him the idea to study music in Hilversum.

In 2004 Sid started his studies of Composition in Context, at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Faculty of Art, Media & Design in Hilversum. In August 2008 Sid graduates with the title, Master of Composition in Context.

In the early years of his studies Sid was confronted with various new ways of composing and various music that was new to him, encountering electronic soundscapes, counterpoint, the Twelve-Tone System, the polytonal / contemporary techniques of Stravinski, Ligeti and Bartok, the beautiful sound of the Javanese Gamelan, African polyrhythmic music and medieval, other ethnic music and renaissance vocal music. The music of György Ligeti made a great impact on him even before he started his study. Ligeti’s instrumental soundscapes inspired Sid to compose very atonal music, using clusters. Experimenting with these techniques gave him a wider knowledge of form, structure and sonic detail. His concertwork can be described as evolving piece of music.

Sid took a great interest in ethnic music, especially traditional Japanese music. Through this music he decided to learn the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute. He took lessons from shakuhachi teacher and musician Kees Kort. Aside from the shakuhachi, Sid also took interest in various other instruments like the Armenian Duduk, the bouzouki (8-string lute), Turkish Ney and Soprano Sax to name a few.

Aside from composing for film and other media, Sid also composes his own (prog)rock albums and works in collaboration with other musicians and composers. His rock albums are usually mixed with electronica, orchestral and ethnic elements.

..PROFESSIONAL BIO.. In 2004 Sid scored his first short film “Temple Tumble” by Niels Philipsen. After that he scored a number of short films that same year, one of which made it on national television (Netherlands). One of the most important projects came in 2005, when Sid got in contact with the award-winning director Jeremy Haccoun to score his shortfilm, "Paradox". After this Sid was introduced to conductor Lex Veelo of the Hofstads Jeugd Orkest, the oldest Youth Orchestra in the world. He got commissioned to write a concertpiece for them to perform at the National Youth Orchestra Contest. The concertpiece is called "Overture to the Snow Goose".

2006 was one of the busiest years for Sid, scoring up to fourteen short films aside from trailers, commercials and school projects. One of those short films, “Heart’s Atlantis” by Drew MacDonald, was nominated for Best Score in Australia. He took on a lot of different genres and styles, ranging from drama to horror, thriller/suspense to adventure to comedy to sci-fi / experimental film. His skills evolved and grew by doing all these various films, as did his knowledge of the business.

In 2007 Sid a lot of interesting films among which “In Midair” by Robert L. Arnott, which was a personal breakthrough for him in terms of composition and style. This was also the year he scored his first feature film “Clear” by Eddie Lebron, a futuristic psychological thriller. Side projects for this year include: a composition for the New York rockband Electric Kompany and a composition for large ensemble.

For more information about Sid and his projects, visit his official website:

www.sidbarnhoorn.com