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Biography 2023
Canadian born composer/pianist Jeff Vidov first attracted attention by winning the SOCAN Composer’s Award for his first orchestral work “AWAKEN” in 1994. Jeff received his BM as a scholarship student at the prestigious Eastman School of Music (one of the top music schools in the USA) and his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music and had numerous private lessons with Pulitzer Prize winning composers Christopher Rouse and Joseph Schwantner, as well as eminent composers Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Richard Danielpour and Robert Morris and learned vocal technique for 3 years from Donald Neuen (student of the famous vocal conductor Robert Shaw). After graduating Jeff worked at Sony Music Recording Studios in New York city, site of the MTV unplugged sessions and A&E Live by request where he assisted on numerous recording sessions on large orchestral film scores, Mariah Carey, Harry Connick Jr, the Cure, and Stevie Wonder. Jeff is an in-demand session musician in Toronto and has played theaters across Canada with tribute bands, the original “LEGENDS” band with Elvis singers and legendary Canadian singer Bobby Curtola, and Colm Wilkinson. Jeff also enjoys singing high background harmonies for these groups and other bands.
As a composer Jeff has composed/recorded the FULL film score for 13 movies and 2 TV shows and 2 theatre productions, as well as classical/concert works for orchestra, chamber groups, and numerous solo and duo works. Many of these were featured on his 4cd set released in 2006 which contained his solo piano recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and solo piano works of Chopin, Haydn and Brahms. As a classical pianist Jeff has played much of the repertoire including many piano concerti of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Saint Seans, and Liszt and he has accompanied many opera singers and instrumentalists. Jeff has many piano concerti in his repertoire and spent his time during the covid shutdown working on Rachmaninov’s 2nd and 3rd piano concerti. As choir conductor/accompanist Jeff has also performed much of the classical, Broadway AND ROCK choral repertoire with many choirs in Toronto and he can read/play choral parts (up to 8 voices) during rehearsals. Jeff has music directed choirs, cabaret shows, musicals and more and excels in voice coaching large groups of singers from the keyboard. Jeff also does the audio mix of these concerts as well in his studio. As jazz pianist Jeff has performed/recorded with numerous big bands in Toronto including the GTA big band, Swing shift, and Sheraton big band, and smaller jazz combo’s. In the Corktown (string) Orchestra in Toronto Jeff was called upon to play piano and mostly harpsichord for the mostly baroque repertoire over 10 years. Jeff is also a church organist and is presently the Music director/organist/choirc director of Church of the Guildwood in Scarborough. You can see his organ improvisations from his upcoming 2cd organ improvisations album on his Youtube channel as well as his performance of Saint Seans 3rd symphony, which is an organ concerto with orchestra.
Jeff is the owner of H. of C recording Studios in Toronto where he records his film scores, pop/rock/jazz music and does remote recording of choirs and classical groups in the Toronto area which he multi-tracks and masters to give his clients the best mix possible. He runs a 2019 Mac pro with Logic/Protools/Cubase with numerous plugins from Plugin Alliance complete/Izotope complete/Black rooster complete/Waves diamond/Arturia complete/Native Instruments 14 complete/Ik multimedia Total Max 4 and more. In terms of Orchestra libraries Jeff uses Spitfire/Eastwest complete/Orchestral Sounds/NI complete 14/8dio complete/Cinematic Studio and MUCH more. He has completed a 2cd solo jazz piano cd, a 2cd pop/rock cd, a 2cd prog rock opera, a 2cd church organ cd, and will soon be recording a blues cd and a World music cd at his studio. He plays Korg Kronos and Roland Fantom G8 and Kurzweil PC3K8 synthesizers and has several instruments at his studio as shown by his guitar and bass playing on his recordings. Jeff has composed hundreds of pop/rock/jazz/blues/musical theatre songs and excels at songwriting and lyric writing.
Jeff has an extensive interest in piano improv and does so in many styles from classical, jazz, blues, gospel, stride/ragtime etc. These can be heard on his cd’s and Youtube channel. As a pianist and session player Jeff has accompanied classical choirs, Broadway show choirs, jazz big bands, string orchestras and has worked as Music Director/ voice coach for musicals. As church organist Jeff has played in many of the churches in Toronto for weddings, and has played organ for several classically composed Masses with the Hart House singers with small orchestra. He also excels in improv on the organ and will soon release his 2 cd organ album. He excels in bringing an exciting and laid back atmosphere to all his projects.
Jeff Vidov is a member of the following organizations
Recording Academy—Voting member Grammy Awards
CARAS-Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Academy of Canadian Cinema and television
Canadian League of Composers
Guild of Canadian Film Composers
SOCAN/BMI
JEFF VIDOV'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
https://www.youtube.com/user/JeffVidov
Below is a list of the 11 films and 2 tv shows (with weblinks to the films) Jeff has scored
1-Pelican Daughters-70 min drama---Dan Wilson director-Piano/string John Williams type score--website-http://www.pointblankpictures.com
2-Zombie Night-90 min horror-Primal films-orchestra/electronica score-website-http://www.primalfilms.com/zombienight
3-Lady Potato Face-5 min silent black and white drama/comedy-Danny Elfman orchestral type score
4-Perfect Sense-18 min drama/comedy/biopic-Chris McInroy director-just a plain fucked up type score
5-"21fps"-18 min drama-English director Samuel George-piano/strings Philip Glass type score
6-"Jar of Grasshoppers"-5 min drama/suspense-Chris McInroy director--suspense/electronica/"Terminator" type score
7-"Legally Desi"-142min Bollywood style romantic comedy/drama-A.J Rupani director---many different styles of music including traditional Indian/orchestral/jazz/dance/ depending on the scene---quite a variety in this film!!---website-http://www.legallydesifilm.com
8-"SPY GAMES"--13 part tv magazine show(30 min each episode) about spies in the cold war and WW1/WW2-GPI Productions (Toronto)-series is in 6th(!!) airing on the Mystery Channel(owned by Global/Canwest)---All music by Jeff Vidov
9-"Sports Compact TV"--30 min sports magazine show-aired on Ch 11-Tv CH-Hamilton--Jeff did quite a bit of the music for this show about cars/racing-season one just finished its 26th episode.
10-"Groomed"-a 20 min indie Canadian film comedy directed by Joseph Raso about same sex marriage, filmed in HD, scored completely by Jeff
11-"Sherlock"- a 7 min comedy directed by Joshua Starnes about a guy who thinks he is Sherlock Holmes and helps the police solve a murder in modern America.--All music by Jeff Vidov.
12-"Ext. Bench"-another 5 min short film by Las Vegas director Chris McInroy-this is just plain awesome
13-"Anthea" 10 min short drama for director Alexandra Sasha Foppiano-orchestral score
STUDIO EQUIPMENT LIST 2023
STUDIO EQUIPMENT LIST 2023
Mac Pro 7.1 (2019)-128 gb ram-9tb of ssd’s
Logic Pro x-Cubase 12 pro-Nuendo 12 Pro-Wavelab 10 pro and 11
Pro-Protools studio 2023-Dorico 4-Finale-Musescore 4-Ableton live 11
lite-Spectralayers 9-Melodyne editor 5
Behringer x32 mixer/soundcard
Korg kronos 2-88 key synth workstation
Amp’s---
Les Paul standard 2005 guitar
TC Helicon Voicelive 3 and voice tone H1
DH Baldwin 5.2 grand piano
Numerous microphones-mic stands
Sample libraries——
Spitfire-Albion 1-Tundra-Solstice-uist-BBC orch pro-british drama
toolkit-jupiter-Abbey road orchestra
Silk aria grand piano
FX plugins—
Plugin Alliance-almost everything
Gtr pedals-Line 6-POD hd500x---and Zoom G9.2tt
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