is a British born musical conductor, composer, orchestrator, producer and arranger of Turkish Cypriot descent.
Turkish-Cypriot Tolga Kashif was born in London. Before going on to further education, Kashif went to Churchfields Junior School and Forest School. His compositional and conducting studies at the Royal College of Music led him subsequently to Bristol University with Derek Bourgeois. He had his professional début with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, resulting in further collaborations with the City of London Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Northern Sinfonia and the Wren Orchestra. He has been the Music Director of the London Amadeus Choir, which is thought to have influenced the choral elements of Queen Symphony. In 1992 he became the Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has enjoyed many successful orchestral concerts, particularly at the Barbican Arts Centre (formerly Barbican Hall).
Kashif's work overseas has also been highly reputable. He has conducted the Polish National Symphony and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1989, he worked with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra abroad in a series of successful concerts held as part of the Istanbul International Festival of the same year. In 1991 he was assigned the position of Permanent Guest Conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra.
As of 1989, Kashif's role as a creative partner in "The Music Sculptors" – one of the principal companies specialising in sound-to-picture – saw him combining his roles as composer, conductor and producer. He worked with some more highly regarded ensembles, including the BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony and the English Chamber Orchestra. Through this programme, he co-wrote the soundtrack for Silver Fox Films' children's animation First Snow of Winter (1999), which won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award, a Royal Television Award and a Prix Jeunesse. Following the film's success, Kashif co-wrote the music to The Second Star to the Left (2001). He also co-wrote the soundtrack for Where the Heart Is, Q.E.D. (BBC TV series) and the BBC's documentary series concerning the Gulf War: Fighting the War. Kashif musically directed the BBC Children in Need's platinum-selling single, "Perfect Day" (1997). Not only did it win many accolades and media awards, but it grossed £2,125,000 for Children in Need.
From 2000 to the present, he has worked with music engineer Steven Price on various advertising campaigns for Blockbuster, Vodafone, Nokia, Marmite and Zurich Insurance, to name a few.
Musical Collaborations
Kashif's first major work was for Mediaset, which he composed the new idents for Rete 4 launched on September 20, 1999, created by British design agency E&P Associates. Kashif co-wrote the original score for the feature film, The Criminal (2000), with Mark Sayer-Wade, his partner at The Music Sculptors. He conducted the world premiere of his composition, The Garden of the Prophet (2000) with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Arts Centre. In 2004 he both produced and arranged Vanessa-Mae's Choreography for Sony Classical Records and Maksim Mrvica's Variations Part I&II for EMI. In the same year, he conducted the ECO in Roland Chadwick's The Revealing. Kashif worked with the London Metropolitan Orchestra when recording 3 tracks for Amy Nuttall in her crossover album for EMI Classics: Best Days (2005). He used 33 strings, flutes, oboes, horns, trumpets and trombones for the songs, and they were recorded by engineer Geoff Foster at AIR Lyndhurst Hall.
Kashif has worked closely with Lesley Garrett. In an interview, she claimed they go back a long way and that he has a real understanding of her sound. For her cassette, The Singer (2002), he was the conductor. He then orchestrated all of the songs in her album, When I Fall in Love (2007). This ballad collection reached no 11 in the UK Album Chart.
Kashif was also invited by the famous Korean Rock Icon, Seo Taiji, to collaborate and combine Seo Taiji's past music and extraordinary hits, with Kashif's noteworthy orchestral composition and respected talent. The two presented their works at "The Great Seo Taiji Symphony" Concert held in Seoul, South Korea at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on 27 September 2008. Many Korean critics expected this collaboration to be "one of the most interesting projects done in Korea, yet". In fact, the concert was so successful that it was repeated in December 2008.
National Foundation for Youth Music
In March 2002, Kashif received a commission from the NFYM to write a song for youth: Drop In the Ocean, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. The composer went on record explaining his inspiration behind the music.
