May - Starting work on 12 hours
of TV - 2 BBC two series and a 6 part for Ch4.
April - The TV series
Great Ormond Street Hospital, for which I wrote
the music last year, got nominated for a BAFTA
April - scoring a series
of TV commercials for the Iglo advertising
campaign in Germany, Austria, Holland and
Belgium.
February - My score
for Shakespeare & Us
got nominated for Best Original
Score for a Feature Documentary
by the IFMCA
and by Movie Music UK
January - The 90 minute month. Finishing
Murder Workers, a 90 min documentary for
ch4, half-way through Our Queen, a 90 min for
ITV and about to start on another 90 min for BBC
one.
My Homefront score got a few nice reviews by
Steven Kennedy, David Doncel and Michael Beek at
FSM,
BSO
Spirit and BeekBlogrespectively. Plus it made it to the Best
Of 2012 on Tim Burden's feature at Film
Score Monthly.
November - I have
now representation for drama and film work
with MannersMcDade
Agency. Shakespeare
& Us
and Homefront soundtracks gets 4 stars
reviews from Mundo
BSO
October - I have a
new library album out, on the Universal
label
Hostile Landscapes
creates an atmospheric base for
storytelling. It creates a beautiful, yet
undeniably dark feel on a wasteland of
soundscapes, each with its own individual
sound. Joining and separating the
environment and humankind across Hostile
Landscapes, Human Destruction and Forces of
Nature.
Shimmering landscapes and aggressive scenes
are fashioned through eerie notes, exotic
and experimental instrumentation and of
course, exemplary production work. The
twisted, pulsating underscores take you to
worlds that don’t even exist yet and create
an emotion which draws together that of
fear, wonder and awe.
If you are looking for the type of
production music that will compliment epic
shots and first-class narratives then look
no further.
October
2012 - finishing the last episode of ITV
drama Homefront, the score for a brilliant
Ch4 documentary about the US election and
the score for a BBC 2 hour epic documentary
about International Aid.
Also about to start on a new
Cutting Edge Ch4 documentary and soon on
another for BBC one.
one of my recent tracks being
played by the London Metropolitan Orchestra
in a scoring session @ Angel studios
Short video of my latest recording
session, for ITV drama series Homefront,
Angel Studios - London
July - new library album with my score,
from a 3 part BBC series, released by
Universal
"composer Miguel d'oliveira
masterfully creates a world of new
discoveries"
June - started scoring
Homefront, a 6 part primetime
drama for ITV,
produced by Kim Crowther and
directed by Terry McDonough, Ian Bevitt
and Morag Fullarton
plus;
an epic 2hour feature length
documentary for BBC about International Aid
a Cutting Edge documentary
for Channel 4 about Ian Brady and
another 1 hour documentary
for Channel 4 about the US election.
Some of my music from a
couple of BBC series I have scored is
now available on the Universal label
October - started scoring another 4 part series
for BBC and have closed shop again, since I am
now writing music for 3 BBC series.
September - How Much For My Brother? - a short
film, directed by Joe Tucker, I wrote the music
for has been selected by the London
Film Festival
September - now scoring a 2 part about
Shakespeare, presented by Simon Schama, for BBC
1 and 6 part for BBC 2 about Great Ormond Street
Hospital
July
-
my
music
for
The
Battle of Britain won
a Jerry
Goldsmith award for Best Documentary
Score
July
- accepted one more and am now scoring a
documentary about the Ground Zero mosque
(Frontline / Channel 4), directed by Dan Reed.
May
- I am now booked flat out until January 2012
and can't accept any new comissions. Sorry.
May - have been asked to score a 2 hour
documentary for BBC 1 about the war in
Afghanistan + another 2 hour for BBC 2 on
Shakespeare presented by Simon Shama + a 6 part
series for BBC 2
May
- have been made a full voting member of BAFTA
April
- scoring 2 documentaries for Ch4, writing the
music for a TV commercial and some library
tracks. Thank God for coffee!
March
-
my
music
for
The
Battle
of
Britain
won
Best
feature
documentary
Soundtrack
at
Movie
Music
UK
"Young Portuguese composer Miguel
d’Oliveira impressed greatly in the documentary
category with his score for BATTLE OF BRITAIN, a
BBC documentary which looked at the famous World
Ward II air conflict with new perspective;
d’Oliveira’s music channelled the best of Ron
Goodwin-style British heroism and
pomp-and-circumstance, but distilled
it through modern techniques to great effect"
Jon Broxton,
Movie Music UK 2011
February - my music for The
Battle of Britain got nominated for
Best
feature documentary score by the IFMCA
December 20th - I have now closed shop for the
year and I wish you all
a very Happy Christmas and a
great 2011
November 2010 - accepted a new
commission to score a 1 hour BBC programme about
the King James Bible (BBC productions -
Manchester), presented by Melvyn Bragg
November 2010 - I have been
asked to score another Cutting Edge documentary
for channel 4, shooting early next year.
I have been invited to conduct a
series of workshops about music technology at the
Horniman Museum in London,
probably starting early January 2011.
September 2010 - I have accepted
a new comission to score a BBC documentary about
Icelandic sagas. Looking forward to this one.
September 2010 - some of my
music is being used on a couple of videos (Two's a pair) that are being
screened at the V&A this Friday the 23rd
(part of the London Design Festival)
August 2010 - accepted a new
comission - 2 episode documentary for BBC 2 about
children in care (BBC productions - Scotland),
with Neil Morrissey
August 2010 - Have started work
on a Nom yogurt TV advert (Ogilvy) and 4 episodes
of The Gates of Latin America (Wall to Wall)
August 2010 - Stopped this
nonsense of writing in the third person
July 2010 - started scoring The
Battle of Britain (Lion
Television), with Ewan McGregor, for BBC 1
July 2010 - Miguel has been
commissioned to write the score for a 4 part
mini-series The Gates of Latin
America for PBS.
July 2010 - scoring How
Much
For My Brother?, a dark comedy
directed by Joe Tucker (JokeDisco Films / Film
London)
June 2010 - started a new score
for the Channel 4 documentary, Interview
With an Incubator
March 2010 - wrapping the Cutting Edge score
and starting a 2 episode score for the series America
The Story Of US (History Channel)
January 2010 - starting work on a 1 hour
Cutting Edge documentary for Channel 4, The Air
Hospital, about the C-CAST Globemaster missions in
Afghanistan
November 09 - scoring 7 part series The Bible: a historyfor
Channel 4, writing additional music for the
second BBC series of Merlin, scoring 3 part BBC
documentary about the Great Ormond Street
Hospital and also working on The Living Artist
for ABC Australia
August 09 -
As final proof that no one reads this website
anyway, Miguel has just been asked to score a
7 part series for Channel 4 about the history
of the Bible and a documentary for ABC network
June 09 -
Miguel has been asked to score a 3 part
documentary for BBC 2
and has
now closed shop to new commissions until
further notice
May 09 - Miguel started scoring a 1 hour
documentary about the world oldest mums for
Channel 4
April 09 -
Miguel started scoring 5 part docu drama The Queen
for Channel 4
March 09 - Miguel started scoring a 2 hour
documentary about Byron for Channel 4
January 2009 - Miguel has also started work on a
new 2 part documentary for PBS NOVA (US).
The Making Of a Doctor, is an incredible
2 hour journey that follows the lives of 7
doctors, from the day
they got into Harvard Medical School in 1987
untill the present day.
October 08 - Miguel is scoring a couple of
episodes of BBC one's new drama Merlin and has also been
commissioned to score a series of 4 documentaries
for BBC two.
"Another emotionally
engaging drama from the U.K. that is yet
to appear in the U.S.,Homefront follows
six army wives over the course of its
six-episode Season 1 run. The ITV
program features music by Miguel
d’Oliveira, who crafts some wonderful
orchestral music with thematic
connections that make for an enjoyable
if brief listening experience.
“A Good Soldier” opens the playlist with
a beautiful orchestral setting featuring
a wonderful clarinet idea as a recurring
color. The tracks that follow move
through a series of moody, atmospheric
adagios in which motives move in and out
of the textures. Occasionally, there are
electronic ideas melded into the
orchestral fabric, but acoustics rule
the day.
The music really blossoms (“Some Kind of
Homecoming”) when close harmonic
intervals create wonderful releases
along with hints of thematic ideas. The
“End Credits” music is reminiscent of
the kind of warm, orchestral writing
found in many other contemporary dramas
from the U.K.
Homefront may not have a memorable main
theme, but it is well crafted orchestral
music that focuses on delving into
emotional depths. Overall, it’s much
finer dramatic scoring than most U.S.
shows see these
days".
Miguel
is forging an enviable composing career, through
no less than very hard work and a lot of skill.
A ‘Jerry Goldsmith Award’ for Battle of Britain,
a fantastic orchestral score for BBC One’s
documentary about the legendary air battle and
presented by Ewan McGregor (the doc, not the
award) was a pinnacle for the Portuguese
composer who now calls London home. Crafting
score after score for Channel Four’s Cutting
Edge and a host of factual features and series
for the BBC – including Great Ormond Street
Hospital, Shakespeare and Us and the recent The
American Road Trip: Obama’s Story – have given
Miguel the basis for a fine career and the
projects only seem to get bigger and better.
This summer he turned in his first TV drama
score, for ITV1’s Homefront, and with the London
Metropolitan Orchestra at his disposal the
composer impressed the producers, and this lowly
writer. I just know that this will be first of
many dramatic scores from Miguel d’Oliveira.
The composeris far from thenormalconventionsin the music fordocumentariesand applies a diverse and deliberatelyscattered,
unstructured score,which globallyisunpredictable
andchaotic,at timesexquisitelyrefinedand in otherssimpleandsuperficial. He references circumstantiallyRenaissance music but
also he is experimental; he isin
somethemesmelodicandatonal
in others,but he achieves
that most ofhis themeshaveits
own entityand,altogether,standandshow
thecomplexityand heterogeneityof what isnarrated inthe documentary.
Young Portuguese composer Miguel d’Oliveira
impressed greatly in the documentary category
with his score for BATTLE OF BRITAIN, a BBC
documentary which looked at the famous World
Ward II air conflict with new perspective;
d’Oliveira’s music channelled the best of Ron
Goodwin-style British heroism and
pomp-and-circumstance, but distilled
it through modern techniques to great
effect"
Jon Broxton, Movie Music UK 2011
"one of the most inventive and creative horror
scores I have heard in a long while"
"this is a real winner and
the boundless creativity exhibited by Miguel
d’Oliveira never fails to impress me each time I
listen"
"It is the use of the human
voice that, as well as the innovative and the
interesting use of a plethora of instruments,
that lingers in the memory once the album has
ended"
"A horror score definitely worth hunting down
down"