Awards

AFI Award Winner 'Best Sound in a Documentary' (2008) – 'Rare Chicken Rescue'   APRA-AGSC Australian Screen Music Awards Winner 'Best Music for a Short Film' (2009) – 'Lucy Wants to Kill Herself'   APRA-AGSC Australian Screen Music Awards Nomination 'Best Music for a Documentary' (2008) – 'Secrets of the Forbidden City'   APRA-AGSC Australian Screen Music Awards Nomination 'Best Music for a Documentary' (2007) – 'The Floating Brothel'   12th Annual Pete Carpenter Fellowship Winner (BMI Foundation, NYC) – Internship with internationally renown composer Mike Post, Los Angeles CA. (2001).

Biography

Brett Aplin is an AFI and Screen Music Award winning screen composer, known for his diversity and ability to craft scores that seamlessly enhance the narrative of film. A classically trained pianist, Brett won the 2000 Annual Pete Carpenter Fellowship (BMI Foundation, NYC) and travelled to Los Angeles to work with Emmy and Grammy award-winning television composer Mike Post, where he composed music for Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He has since focused on working with some of Australia's leading documentary film makers, including scoring the award winning Ten Pound Poms, Rare Chicken Rescue, The Shadow of Mary Poppins and The Floating Brothel. Recently Brett has scored the feature length drama-documentary Secrets of the Forbidden City for the BBC and History Channel, and the 2-part drama-documentary series Rogue Nation for the ABC .   Brett also composed the theme music for the television game show Friday Night Games, and has written music for the Australian series of Big Brother. He has worked on numerous short films including the award-winning animations Prelude and Lucy Wants to Kill Herself.

Brett's latest films include the feature documentary Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia which screened at the Melbourne and Brisbane International Film Festivals, and the documentary films Ocean's Supermum, A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes in Australia, and Terry Carlyon's highly anticipated documentary on Melbourne's underworld killings Dead Famous, all to screen on ABC1 this year. Brett is currently writing the score to a 3-part documentary series for the BBC.

Brett has thrice been nominated for an APRA - Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award for Best Music for a Documentary for The Floating Brothel (2007) and Secrets of the Forbidden City (2008), and winning for Best Music for a Short Film for Lucy Wants to Kill Herself (2009). He was awarded an AFI for his work on Rare Chicken Rescue last year.

Nov 2009

Further Awards & Achievements

MusicOz National Songwriting Competition - Runner up, Classical Music Category (2002)

Australian Songwriters Association, Australian National Songwriting Contest - Top Ten Finalist in RnB Category & Preliminary

Finalist in Open and Dance/Electronica categories 2004

APRA 2004 Professional Development Awards - Short listed

Judge AGSC/APRA National Screen Music Awards 2003-2004, 2006-2008

Composer / Pianist / Arranger - 'Electric Light Theatre' (1989-1992)

Winner of the Inaugural Brian Norris Award for Most Promising Instrumentalist (1988)

Qualifications

Australian Music Examinations Board (A.M.E.B.):

Grade 7 Pianoforte | Grade 5 Musicianship