Tandis Jenhudson (born 1979) is a Emmy-nominated British composer, musician and medical doctor, best known for his work on film and television soundtracks. He has also received two Royal Television Society award nominations[1] and is the first composer to have been honoured as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit.[2]

Tandis Jenhudson
Born (1979-11-20) November 20, 1979 (age 45)
GenresFilm scores, classical, electronica
Occupation(s)Composer, musician, medical doctor
Instrument(s)Piano, Multi instrumentalist, Synthesizer
Websitewww.tandismusic.com

Early life and education

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Tandis was born in Clapham, London in 1979 and attended St George's Hanover Square Primary School, and the London Nautical School and Christ's College, Finchley secondary schools.[3]

Despite his early interest in music, he studied Medicine at UCL and divides his time between medicine and music. He composed soundtracks for numerous short films during his early medical career, one of which was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru award in 2005.[4]

In a 2014 interview,[2] with PRS for Music's M-Magazine he said "I was obsessed with TV themes when I was a kid in the eighties and would even dance to some of them when they came on: "Ski Sunday, Dallas, The A-Team, Grange Hill, Airwolf, Doctor Who, Knight Rider, and Doogie Howser, M.D." He studied piano achieving Grade 8 although describes himself as a largely self-taught composer, stating "most of my musical development has come from listening to and dissecting other people's music" citing Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Michael Jackson as examples.[2]

Film and television work

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In 2013, he received his first television broadcast credit for The March,[2] a BBC/PBS documentary narrated by Denzel Washington which received a BAFTA nomination at the 2014 British Academy Television Awards.[5] Directed by John Akomfrah and executive-produced by Robert Redford The March is about the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – largely remembered for Martin Luther King's famous and iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

In March 2015, Tandis was named laureate and winner in the media composer category at the first International MediaMusic competition in Moscow, for which film composer Ennio Morricone served as honorary chairman.[6] In May he was revealed as one of the judges for the 60th Anniversary Ivor Novello Awards, alongside Gary Barlow and Guy Chambers.[7] In the same year he scored the soundtrack to director Christopher Riley's National Geographic Channel film Hubble's Cosmic Journey.

In 2016, he composed the soundtrack for 'The Traffickers' an eight-part documentary TV series produced by Simon Chinn (winner of two Academy Awards for Searching for Sugar Man and Man On Wire) and Jonathan Chinn.

In 2018, he scored Civilisations, a 9-part art history television series produced by the BBC in association with PBS as a follow-up to the original 1969 landmark series Civilisation by Kenneth Clark. It was presented and narrated by Simon Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga.[8] Jenhudson's soundtrack received two nominations at the RTS awards in 2018.[1]

Video installation work

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Tandis Jenhudson has created the soundtracks for two multi-screen video installations by the award-winning artist John Akomfrah.[3]

In 2015, he scored Vertigo Sea, a 3-screen triptych that explores man's relationship with the sea and its role in the history of slavery, migration, and conflict. It premiered at the 2015 Venice Biennale and has since exhibited at numerous galleries including Arnolfini, the Turner Contemporary and as recently as 2018 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.[9][10] It was nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts award in the Visual Arts category.[11]

In 2017, he collaborated with David Julyan to score Purple, a six-screen film about climate change, human communities and the wilderness. It exhibited for 14 weeks at the Barbican in London, receiving a 4-star review from The Telegraph commenting that it offered "ravishing reminders of what we all stand to lose".[12]

Awards and honours

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In 2014, he was selected as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and as a result was mentored by his lifelong idol Ennio Morricone.[13]

In 2018, he was nominated for two Royal Television Society awards for Civilisations in the categories of Original Score and Original Title Music.[1]

Selected works

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Year Title Format Platform Director Notes
2006 Love You, Joseff Hughes Short Film Dan Hartley Nominated
2013 The March Feature Documentary BBC Two

PBS

John Akomfrah Narrated by Denzel Washington, exec-produced by Robert Redford

Nominated:

  • BAFTA (best factual)
2015 Hubble's Cosmic Journey Feature Documentary National Geographic Christopher Riley Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Nominated

2015 Vertigo Sea Video Installation John Akomfrah Nominated
2016 The Traffickers 8-part TV series Fusion TV Various Lightbox Productions (exec producer Simon Chinn)

Winner:

2017 Stalkers Feature Documentary BBC One Kat English Produced by Wild Pictures
2017 Purple Video Installation John Akomfrah Premiered at Barbican Curve, London
2018 Food Exposed 8-part TV series Fusion TV Various Produced by Lightbox (executive producer Simon Chinn)
2018 Civilisations 8-part TV series BBC Two

PBS

Various Produced by NutopiaPresented by Simon Schama Mary Beard and David Olusoga
Nominated
  • RTS Award (Best Original Score and Best Title Music)
2019 Hatton Garden: Inside Job Feature Documentary ITV Tim Conrad ITV (produced by Optomen) - presented by Ross Kemp
2019 Cajun Navy Feature Documentary Discovery Channel James Newton Produced by Lightbox (exec producer Simon Chinn)
2019 The Cameron Years 2-part TV series BBC One Ian Leese BBC1 (exec producer Denys Blakeway)
2020 Tigers: Hunting the Traffickers Feature Documentary BBC Two Laura Warner BBC2 Natural World (produced by Grain Media)
Nominated - Grierson Award (Best Natural History Documentary)
2021 Joanna Lumley and the Human Swan Feature Documentary ITV Ian Leese ITV
2022 Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime 2-part TV series Channel 4 Kira Phillips Nominated:
  • BAFTA (best factual series)
  • RTS (best doc series / best director)
  • Grierson (best doc series)
  • Broadcast Awards (best doc series)
2022 Patagonia: Life at the Edge of the World 6-part TV series CNN

SKY

Various Plimsoll Productions (exec producer Martha Holmes)

Nominated:

2022 The Disappearance of April Jones 3-part TV series Channel 4 John Incledon Nominated:
  • BAFTA Cymru (best doc series)
2022 Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me Feature Documentary Apple TV+ BBC Two Clare Sturges Nominated:
  • BAFTA Cymru (best director)
2023 Inside Iran: The Fight for Freedom Feature Documentary ITV Gesbeen Mohammad Hard Cash Productions
2023 David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived Feature Documentary HBO

SKY

Dan Hartley Produced by Lightbox (exec producer Simon Chinn)
2023 Putin and Ukraine's Stolen Children Feature Documentary BBC One Robin Barnwell Top Hat Productions

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Nominations for RTS Craft & Design Awards 2018 announced". Royal Television Society. 5 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d "Interview: Tandis Jenhudson". M magazine.co.uk.
  3. ^ a b "Tandis Jenhudson". Tandis Jenhudson. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  4. ^ "BAFTA Breakthrough Brits 2014". Bafta.org. 24 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Television in 2014". Awards.bafta.org.
  6. ^ "Новости Конкурса | Mediamusic Competition News". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  7. ^ Jenhudson, Tandis. "A toast to the all judges who took part in this year's Ivor Novello Awards. Honoured to have been one of them.pic.twitter.com/EazBpkHeB5". Twitter.com. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  8. ^ "BBC — Civilisations: Masterworks of beauty and ingenuity". BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  9. ^ "John Akomfrah: Vertigo Sea — Arnolfini". Arnolfini.org.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  10. ^ "John Akomfrah: Signs of Empire". Newmuseum.org. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  11. ^ a b "David Bowie's final album on Sky Arts awards list". Evening Standard. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  12. ^ "John Akomfrah | Barbican". Barbican.org.uk. 6 October 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  13. ^ "Tandis Jenhudson". Bafta.org. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  14. ^ "Love You, Joseff Hughes". IMDb.com. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  15. ^ "Hubble's Cosmic Journey". Emmys.com. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
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