Hal Beckett

Composer Hal Foxton Beckett began his musical studies at the Halifax Conservatory of Music in Canada. He then relocated to Vancouver, where he attended the University of British Columbia to study composition and electronic music, as well as studying under Barry Traux (a pioneer of FM synthesis) at Simon Fraser University. After university, Hal opened his own recording facility where he produced and recorded over 25 albums, including the seminal recordings of 54-40, the Vancouver Chamber Singers, and one of the first pre-CD, vinyl digital masters in Canada, Jean Piché's "L'Ange". As Vancouver's post-production industry began to expand in 1989, Hal opened a fully digital, 48-track facility with Synclavier disc editing systems. He provided audio post-production services for more than 60 feature films and documentaries, as well as over 100 hours of episodic television. Since then, as the post-production market in Vancouver has rapidly expanded, Hal's services have grown to include not only Composition ("Call Of The Wild", for which he garnered an 'Outstanding Main Title' Prime Time Emmy nomination; "Yvon of The Yukon", YTV's highest-rated series), but also: Orchestral Contracting for many feature films (Keystone Entertainment's "Spymate", ABC's "Once Upon a Mattress"), and Music Supervision & Editing for film and television ("The Chris Isaak Show", Brightlight Pictures' feature, "The Long Weekend", "Highlander: The Series", and Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital"). More recently, Hal has been composing music for several cartoon series produced in Vancouver, in addition to writing scores for feature films including "They Wait" and "The Storm." He also helmed the recording of one hundred and ten Olympic national anthems to be used in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, BC.