Robert Townson
Robert Townson is the most prolific producer of film music in the world. He has been averaging one new album release a week for the last thirty years! Robert has been described as “the living embodiment of the history of film music.” His lifelong passion for film and classical music has made him one of the world’s great film music scholars and educators, inspiring others through his lectures, writings, concerts and recordings. In July of 2010, Townson celebrated the release of his 1000th album (Alex North’s Spartacus). and currently has over 1400 to his credit.
Townson founded his first record label, Masters Film Music, in Canada in October of 1985. His first album release was Jerry Goldsmith’s The Final Conflict, and the string of successes has continued, uninterrupted, ever since. Townson and Goldsmith would end up doing over 80 albums together. His complete discography of original soundtracks, restorations of classics and new recordings is impossible to even summarize briefly. It overflows with blockbuster and Academy Award-winning films, iconic and Emmy-winning television productions, as well as Grammy-nominated and -winning recordings.
2013 saw Townson produce and host China’s very first film music concert on the stage of the Venetian Resort Hotel featuring the Macau Orchestra and Choir and flute soloist Sara Andon. California’s Golden State Pops Orchestra dedicated their entire 2013 season to the celebration of Varèse Sarabande’s 35th Anniversary. This included a show on May 11 that brought together an unprecedented assembly of film composers — Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Powell, Michael Giacchino and Brian Tyler among them. Robert was presented with the prestigious Ambassador Award at the Krakow Film Music Festival’s 10th Anniversary Gala in May 2017. Robert reunited with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in November 2018, producing and hosting concerts in Edinburgh and Glasgow which celebrated the Varèse Sarabande 40th Anniversary and looked back over his 30-year career with the label and his 40-album series of recordings with the RSNO. Robert Townson continues his soundtrack and concert production activities bringing great film music, live and recorded, to audiences all over the world.