I am a multi-genre composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and mixing engineer who specializes in modern 'classical' music, film & game music, retro / old school videogame music, -- 8, 16, and 32 bit -- as well as pop, fingerstyle guitar, rock, blues, ambient, and metal. I also can work on string arrangements and orchestration, for both digital and life. I read music, play bye ear, and can work on transcribing, engraving, and part production. I have done a lot of work for budget projects where we mix digital and live instruments, but I am also capable of creating expensive sounding soundtracks for a larger project that has the budget for live players and high end production.

Emil Levasseur

I am a multi-genre composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and mixing engineer who specializes in modern 'classical' music, film & game music, retro / old school videogame music, -- 8, 16, and 32 bit -- as well as pop, fingerstyle guitar, rock, blues, ambient, and metal. I also can work on string arrangements and orchestration, for both digital and life. I read music, play bye ear, and can work on transcribing, engraving, and part production. I have done a lot of work for budget projects where we mix digital and live instruments, but I am also capable of creating expensive sounding soundtracks for a larger project that has the budget for live players and high end production.

Available to hire

I am a multi-genre composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and mixing engineer who specializes in modern ‘classical’ music, film & game music, retro / old school videogame music, – 8, 16, and 32 bit – as well as pop, fingerstyle guitar, rock, blues, ambient, and metal. I also can work on string arrangements and orchestration, for both digital and life. I read music, play bye ear, and can work on transcribing, engraving, and part production.

I have done a lot of work for budget projects where we mix digital and live instruments, but I am also capable of creating expensive sounding soundtracks for a larger project that has the budget for live players and high end production.

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Language

Work Experience

Contract Composer at Fosca Features LLC
May 6, 2015 - September 10, 2021
Composing cues for live action short films.
Music Producer at Markus of Rocksley
September 10, 2020 - Present
Producing Viking Metal. Co-writing, Mixing, Providing session files for session players, editing audio, recording sessions.
Freelance Composer (self employed) at Emil Levasseur Productions
August 14, 2014 - Present
Writing concert music, videogame music, and film music. Performing live gigs, doing studio sessions. Teaching private music lessons to clients. Worked writing music for HAUStv.

Education

Bachelor of Arts Advanced at University of Manitoba
September 1, 1999 - May 26, 2004
Major Psychology, Minor Microbiology
Bachelor of Music at University of Manitoba
September 1, 2004 - May 24, 2008
Music Composition with a minor in Cello Performance
Masters of Music at University of British Columbia
September 1, 2010 - August 20, 2010
Music Composition with a minor in Cello Performance
Doctorate of Musical Arts at University of Toronto
September 1, 2010 - November 15, 2014
Music Composition

Qualifications

Best Musical Score. Haze's Eyes, directed by Jesse McAnally
September 19, 2021 - September 20, 2021
Best Original Song. Luccia. Directed by Jesse McAnally
May 8, 2018 - September 13, 2020
Pure Magic International Film Festival

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment
    paper Bardr - Markus of Rocksley

    I have known Markus of Rocksley for years. We had a dad metal band for awhile but the plan was always for the two of us to co-write a viking metal concept album.
    I’ve been learning a lot about mixing, production, and session work as I put this project together!
    More songs to come!!! We have 3 we are currently working on!

    This is a great example of my work as an audio engineer, producer, and mixing engineer.

    paper Second Shot

    OST
    https://on.soundcloud.com/PDFTaM8qEh0FXIYLqr

    I’ve known my friend KalebG for ages. When he asked me to write music for a game he was working on, I was thrilled. Kaleb loves the music of Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana by the amazing composer Hiroki Kikuta. This is my own, individual take on Kikuta’s sound. We got to showcase a demo build of the game at Magfest, which was a lot of fun!!! I also met Dale North there, and Dale is awesome!!

    paper Northern Lights

    I composed this piece for Cello and Piano for a friend of mine. It has gone through many rewrites until it was strong enough that I thought I should release it.
    This is a demo with a playthrough by my friend Luke Kim, who is an excellent cellist. The piano is East West Steinberg.

    paper Luccia

    Jesse McAnally, director, loves music theatre, and he also loves opera. He approached me about creating a film that is also an Operetta. The challenge for him was directing a film that was for a piece of music that didn’t exist.
    He wrote some text, translated it into Italian, and I composed an aria, which we built all the film music around. He story boarded the film and I composed the score to match.

    paper Hazel's Eyes

    Jesse approached me about doing a 48 hour film festival. He was SURE I would win ‘best musical score’!!
    The project was really fun. He had me watch the film Thing and then he sent me the script / story board and I started writing music to match with the story, planning to trim the music to fit the locked picture!!

    It was a different process than usually scoring a film, where you have a temp track, cues, and are asked to write songs and certain parts ahead of time. Rather than an extended and protracted discussion over time, this project evolved quickly and was all coming together concurrently, where I had to deliver the final score in time to export the audio for the deadline!! It was a BUSY two days but we’re really stoked with the result!

    paper Sunny Days

    I put up an artist page on Facebook and about 24 hours later I got a message from a film student studying in Detroit. He asked if I’d be willing to score a live action film and of course, I said absolutely!!
    It was a super fun project. I got to write a cheezy song for it and I really enjoyed using music to try and enhance the narrative of the film!!

    paper Ballin

    Ricky Tang needed a score at the last minute and I was in the process of building a new computer. (I almost lost the recorded singers for Ragen because of an incompatible audio driver)
    I was living in Winnipeg finishing my degree, but I was visiting Toronto and I went to Sheridan to see the animation students. I spoke with Ricky Tang in person and he told me about how he loves videogame music and anime music, and how he loved the battle music from Greed Island in the Hunter X Hunter 2011 anime. (I watched Gon battle the bomber many times, and then watched the whole anime…)

    paper Scrap Metal

    https://vimeo.com/anthonimation/scrapmetal?share=copy

    This was the project that started it all. Christos Hatzis pushed me to enrol in the ‘composing for film’ course at the U of T.
    I made a demo reel and Anthony Straus liked my sound and wanted to work with me. He told me he wanted the film score to sound lo fi like an old monster movie! I went for this faux 20th century aesthetic!!

    The oboe was recorded in a hallway at U of T and the trumpet and trombone were recorded by my friends at UBC and they sent me the audio!!

    paper Night Light

    https://vimeo.com/qinghan/nightlight?share=copy

    No one chose me from Sheridan College this year, much to the surprise of my friends in the program.
    Then Bruno Degazio contacted me and said there was a student who needed a composer because she wasn’t able to attend the meet and greet. He recommended me, and I am thankful. I would usually get courted by animators who had dark topics in the film and wanted something broody, angry, or aggressive.
    This film was completely different!

    When I started the project, Qing Han told me that she had a large following on Deviant Art and online in general. Qing Han had created a temp track using Asian Dream Song by Joe Hisaishi so I use this as a reference and created something quite similar. Little did I know that this film would be my most viewed musical composition ever, and that it would lead to me working with Jesse McAnally!

    paper Ragen

    https://vimeo.com/sprogis/ragen?share=copy

    The last of the Sheridan thesis films I scored. Writing something in the style of Alexandre Desplat was not on my bingo card. But, it was a super cool musical reference. When the composers at the U of T were being interviewed by students, Dan Sprogis told me he wanted something like this, but darker and more evil! I told him I was up to the challenge. He told me later that he almost didn’t choose me because I seemed ‘over confident’ but that I ‘definitely delivered’!