Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Multiple award winning Cristobal "Cristo" Tapia de Veer is a Chilean born, classically trained musician, producer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and composer for film & TV based in Montreal, Canada.
After obtaining his Master's degree (with honors) from the 'Conservatory of Music of Québec', he plunged into the pop music world and got signed to Warner Music in 2001, putting a hold on his classical career. His band One Ton reached number one in Canada in 2003 with the electro-dance single "Supersex World" and won the Canadian Dance Music Award (SOCAN). After a tumultuous tour the young band decided to split up. He continued to work as an album producer and touring musician with a wide variety of bands, further enriching his pop music experience.
In 2011, de Veer's music for the Victorian four-part drama The Crimson Petal and the White (directed by Marc Munden, BBC2) was well received by critics. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe, said: "The soundtrack ranges from gnawing electronic hums to choral ecstasy. It's all brilliantly, effectively, appropriately jarring, even if it sends the Masterpiece crowd to the medicine cabinet for Dramamine."
De Veer went on to compose the music for the Channel 4 conspiracy thriller Utopia (created by Dennis Kelly), for which he won a Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award for "best original music" in November 2013.
"Startlingly original scoring of hyper-reality, and unlike anything we've heard before. The winner's work blurred the lines between sound design and score, creating a soundtrack that the jury said felt like it was being played inside your head." Up again for a RTS Award in 2014, the music for the second series won the Music & Sound Award in 2015 in the best Original TV score category. His work on Utopia was also nominated for Televisual Magazine's Bulldog Award for best music.
In early 2014, de Veer completed the music for the TV-show Série noire, which aired on ICI-Radio-Canada Télé. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television awarded him with 2 Prix Gémeaux for best Original Music and Best Musical Theme the same year and again in 2016 for the second season. He also finished the works on BBC's Jamaica Inn, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe.
De Veer set the tone for AMC's / Channel 4's co-production Humans in its first season, which became Channel 4's biggest drama hit in 20 years.
In 2016 de Veer scored his first feature film, The Girl with All the Gifts, which opened the Locarno Film Festival. His music won in the Best Original Music category at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer, France, in 2017, and was hailed among fans and critics. Paramount Pictures used his opening theme, GIFTED, for the final trailer of the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary and Playstation for their videogame Call of Cthulhu. He couldn't continue the following season of HUMANS, because he teamed up with Marc Munden again, to work on National Treasure, Channel 4’s four-part drama inspired by Operation Yewtree, the police investigation into the sexual abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile and allegations against other media personalities. The mini-tv-series was a major success in Europe, earning several prizes, as well as a BAFTA and a FIPA D'OR at the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels de Biarritz, France, for Cristo's original score.
BBC America's series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency found a strong fanbase in 2016, which is still waiting for a soundtrack album to be released. Due to Cristo's heavily charged schedule, he was not able to work on the second season.
In the same year Amazon Prime offered Cristo to work on two episodes of the anthology series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. He worked on HUMAN IS, starring Bryan Cranston as well as CRAZY DIAMOND, starring Steve Buscemi, for which he got a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award the following year.
Cristo also scored the Season 4 Finale of Netflix' dark futuristic cult series Black Mirror created and written by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones. The episode is entitled Black Museum with Letitia Wright, known for her previous roles in Black Panther (film) and Avengers: Infinity War alongside Douglas Hodge.
SOCAN awarded him with the SOCAN International Achievement Award in fall 2017, marking the first time that a composer for film and television has been awarded the prize. Previous recipients of the award include bands such as Arcade Fire.
The innovative Cannes International Series Festival in France, CannesSeries, invited Cristo to be part of the jury for their first edition in 2018, alongside The Wire star Michael Kenneth Williams, German actress Paula Beer, Palme d'Or winner Melisa Sozen, French screenwriter and director Audrey Fouché known for Borgias and Safe' creator Harlan Coben.[20]
Cristo went on to score his second feature film in late 2018, an adaptation of Antonio Orejudo's dark novel Ventajas de Viajar en Tren, directed by Aritz Moreno and produced by Morena Films in Spain. The anticipated first feature by Moreno unites a stellar cast, including Luis Tosar, Pilar Castro, Javier Botet and many more.