Kevin Sargent .:

In October 2003, an unexpected email popped up in Kevin’s inbox. In response to his music for the film Crush, it read:

“Your score besides being so right for the movie, also displayed a rare quality among composers these days: You write terrific melodies! I was very impressed. ”

Burt Berman, President, Music Division, Paramount Pictures.

How many composers can boast Kevin Sargent’s multi-faceted background as a musician and stage performer? Perhaps it is this which gives his work such appeal, work in which memorable, evocative themes are integrated in an imaginative, poly-stylistic approach. Whether it is a sinister, deadpan bossanova (BBC TV’s recent Macbeth) or timeless autumnal lyricism (William Boyd’s meditation on the Sonnets, A Waste of Shame: The Mystery Of Shakespeare And His Sonnets, starring Rupert Graves),  Kevin’s artful and haunting scores never fail to lift the work they serve;  he has that rare ability of capturing the very spirit of any project, and that certainly describes his deceptively simple but hugely evocative score for Lilies, the World Productions period drama serial for the BBC. Kevin has also just completed the score to Saddam's Tribe, adapted from Alan Bashirs & Lars Sigurd Sunnanaa's book "The Insider" and focusing on the lives of Saddam Hussein's closest friends and family. He completed a magical score for the BBC's Christmas adaptation of Noel Streatfield’s much loved novel, Ballet Shoes, as well as scoring Honest for Greenlit Prods and ITV. He recently scored Blue Murder series 5 for Granada. Most recently Kevin finished scoring the slick BBC drama, The Last Days Of The Lehman Brothers, a fantastic dramatic realisation of the events which led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Bank, nearly 6 months into the currently felt turmoil in the world's financial markets. Most recently he completed Joe Maddison's War for Mammoth Screen, written by the late, great, Alan Plater.

Although an accomplished, classically-trained pianist, he in fact began his career as a drummer, percussionist and keyboardist with cult dance/rock pioneers Thrashing Doves. Signed to A&M and Elektra Records, he learnt his craft at the elbow of legendary producers Chris Thomas, Jimmy Iovine and jazz luminary Tommy Lipuma, recording three critically-acclaimed albums in Los Angeles, London and New York and touring the US and Europe. Their funky, and controversial, Jesus on the Payroll reached the Billboard Top Twenty dance chart.

As a founder member of acclaimed comedy team The Hurricane Club, Kevin also boasts a parallel background in theatre and comic improvisation, performing off-the-cuff sketches for many years at their weekly West End residency. As journal Music from the Movies noted of Crush, “his music not only supports but adds to the comedy.” A flair for dramatic and often mischievous juxtaposition reflected in a refined compositional style, blending passion and imagination with great timing, taste and attention to detail. Kevin’s bolder ideas can be cunning; for the Joan Allen/Kevin Costner dramatic comedy The Upside of Anger, his witty and affecting score included a set of variations on a non-existent Scandinavian folk tune, while for crime caper Fakers, an Italian arietta was given a zestful swing-Bach treatment. A Waste of Shame: The Mystery Of Shakespeare And His Sonnets (for which he was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award) gave us the chance to enjoy his serious side, with a tender chamber score, rich in the mystery and finely-felt English melancholy of Shakespeare’s inner world.

Killing Joe, directed by Mehdi Norowzian, and which Kevin scored, was nominated for an American Academy Award as Best Live-Action Short. Selections from his score for Crush were premiered to great acclaim before an audience of ten thousand by the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra in Cincinnati, sharing the programme with music by Leonard Bernstein, John Williams and Danny Elfman.

Kevin has also forged an enviable reputation in commercials, where his characterful, stylish and eclectic contemporary voice has complimented a host of international and prestigious campaigns including Guinness, Adidas, Cerruti, Peugeot, Financial Times, Eurostar, Dulux, Harrods, Goodyear, Glenfiddich, Hyundai, Ford Galaxy, Land Rover and Patek Philippe. His work for Barclays, featuring Sir Anthony Hopkins and directed by Tony Scott, was rewarded with top honours from both the D&AD and Creative Circle, while Adidas ‘Tim Henman’, featuring counter-tenor James Bowman, saw him a finalist in the British Television Advertising Awards for Best Original Music.

Kevin is rightly building a reputation as a gifted composer for all media, whose versatility and passion is reflected in music of genuine individuality and heart. And as for actually working with him, as producer Lee Thomas discovered:

”With music, I usually reckon on either the process or the result being rewarding. With Kevin, it’s both.”

Kevin is represented by Claire Baughan at Blaze Music, London and by Seth Kaplan at Evolution Partners in the USA for commercials.

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Film Credits

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
Sunlight Productions
UK Score
Director: Mike Binder
Producer: Jack Binder
Starring: Kevin Costner, Joan Allen

CRUSH
FilmFour
Director: John McKay
Producer: Lee Thomas
Starring: Andie Macdowell, Anna Chancellor, Imelda Staunton

FAKERS
Director: Richard Janes
Producer: Richard Janes
Starring: Matthew Rhys, Kate Ashfield, Art Malik

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Television/Short Films

JOE MADDISON'S WAR

ITV / Mammoth Screen

Director: Patrick Collerton

Producer: Howard Ella

Executive Producers: Michele Buck, Damien Timmer

THE LAST DAYS OF LEHMAN BROTHERS

BBC

Director: Michael Samuels

Producer: Lisa Osborne

Executive Producer: Ruth Caleb

BLUE MURDER (Series 4 & 5)
Granada

Directors: Juliet May, Graham Theakston

Executive Producer: Carolyn Reynolds

Producer: Mike Dormer, Hugh Warren, Jane Macnaught

HONEST
Greenlit Prods / ITV
Directors: Julian Holmes / Brian Kelly
Producers: Jill Green / Eve Gutierrez

Writer: Heidi Thomas

Starring: Amanda Redman

BALLET SHOES
BBC

Director: Sandra Goldbacher

Producer: Piers Wenger
Writer: Heidi Thomas

Starring: Emma Watson, Emeila Fox, Mark Warren, Richard Griffiths

SADDAMS TRIBE
World Productions / BBC2 / Discovery USA
Director: Chris Menaul
Producers: Monica Garnsey, Roberto Troni

LILIES                                                               
World Productions
Director: David Moore
Producer: Chrissy Skins

AFTERSUN
Tiger Aspect
Director: Peter Lydon
Producer: Rhonda Smith

A WASTE OF SHAME: The Mystery Of Shakespeare And His Sonnets
BBC
Director: John Mckay
Producer: Chrissy Skinns
*Ivor Novello Award Nomination 2006: Best Original TV Music*

MACBETH
BBC
Director: Mark Brozel
Producer: Pier Wilkie

THE CANTERBURY TALES              
BBC
Director: John McKay
Producer: Kate Bartlett

E=
Liberty Films
Director: Alexander Ross

KILLING JOE
Joy Films Too
Director: Mehdi Norwozian
Academy Award Nominee – Best Short – Live Action 2000

WET AND DRY
BBC/C4 Brief Encounters
Director: John McKay

OUT & ABOUT WITH HP LOVECRAFT
National Film & TV School

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Commercials

ADIDAS
Finalist Best Original Music British TV Advertising Craft Awards

OTHERS INCLUDE:
KERRYGOLD, BT, DULUX, BARCLAYS, MASTERCARD, HYUNDAI, LE SHUTTLE, VOLVO, GLENFIDDICH, FORD GALAXY, RENAULT, HARRODS, MOTOROLA, EQUITABLE LIFE, PATEK PHILIPPE, CERRUTI, THE GUARDIAN, VIDAL SASSON, VELUX, PAINE WEBBER INVESTMENTS, TALUS WINES, BASS ALES, FANTA, EAST MIDLANDS ELECTRICITY, RIMMEL, SHELL, WEEKEND FT and THE OBSERVER.

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