Bio

Aaron Tsang

Aaron Tsang is a Canadian composer and producer who has provided original music, sound design and post-production audio to over one hundred titles and releases across videogames, commercials, television shows, and films. In 2021 the University of Toronto commissioned Aaron to compose an orchestral overture for the inauguration of their new campaign “Defy Gravity”. The premiere was a music video project performed by the UTSO and conducted by Lorenzo Guggenheim, marking an exact decade since Aaron was first commissioned by the University of Toronto for the previous campaign “Boundless” in 2011, where he composed a brass fanfare anthem for a 30-piece brass band and was performed numerous times at every faculty and campus. During the covid pandemic, Aaron was also commissioned by the University of Toronto to compose an orchestral score for six consecutive virtual convocations held in absentia and streamed online between 2020-2022.

Since 2010, beginning with “Smurfs’ Village”, one of the oldest and most downloaded in mobile games, Aaron’s music and sound design work can be found in games of many well-known franchises such as, Shrek (DreamWorks Pictures), Ghostbusters (Sony Pictures), as well as Yu-Gi-Oh! (Konami). In 2014, Aaron provided original music and audio services for Kim Kardashian’s “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” game, the success of which launched a wave of celebrity themed games, many of which Aaron would continue to compose original music for such as “Kendall and Kylie”, a follow-up game featuring the Jenner sisters with Glu Mobile, and “Guava Juice: Tub Tapper” for YouTube celebrity Guava Juice, whose channel currently has 17 million subscribers. In 2017, Aaron was the composer for “Shuyan Saga”, a graphic novel style 3D action videogame released on Steam starring Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Burden of Truth) as the titular Shuyan. The game features a full orchestral soundtrack, and was nominated by the Canadian Screen Awards in 2018 for “Best Original Interactive Production for Digital Media”.

As a recording, mixing and mastering engineer, his work for Christos Hatzis’ and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s “Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation” won a Juno award for “Classical Album of the Year” in 2017. Using a new approach to producing classical recordings, Aaron has become increasingly sought after as the producer and recording engineer of new music. His current and upcoming collaborations include recording and mixing Matthias McIntire and Rachel Fenlon’s song cycle “Sing Nature”; producing, recording, and mixing Sarah Slean and Christos Hatzis’ orchestral song “Nothing But The Light”; as well as serving as recording engineer and musical sound designer for “Kimiko’s Pearl” a Bravo Niagara! full-length ballet production choreographed by Yosuke Mino and music composed by Kevin Lau.

Aaron also teaches at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

Composing / Scoring

University of Toronto “Defy Gravity” Fundraising Campaign 2022 Orchestral Commission

University of Toronto Virtual Convocations 2020-2022

Mercedes-Benz 4MATIC “Moment of Sun” Advertising Campaign

“Shuyan Saga” Videogame (Lofty Sky Entertainment)

“Tap Titans 2” Videogame (Game Hive)

“Dino Hunt Canada” (History Channel / National Geographic)

“5000 Years of Heroes” (True Legend Studio)

“M&M’s Moviephobia” Commercial

“Arena of Small Town Life” Tim Hortons 2012 Commercial Feat. Sidney Crosby

“Bloom” Single Release - Jess Leung

“The Cliff and the Road” Original Soundtrack

“Direct from Pluto: First Encounter” Documentary (Discovery Channel)

Recording / Mixing

Three Songs On Poems By Anne Michaels

Ubi Caritas

Woman Runs with Wolves

Kimiko’s Pearl

Menorah

Libertango

Hymn to the Eternal Flame

Academic activity

University of Toronto, Faculty of Music
September 2011 – Present
Lecturer
  • “Songwriting” – an undergraduate and graduate course on the art of songwriting and modern production
  • “Composing for Film” – a comprehensive undergraduate course on the technical process and musicality of film scoring
  • “Studio Orchestration” – a graduate course on the unique orchestrational approaches and harmonic language axioms of modern film music and its production
  • “MIDI Sequencing” – a graduate course with a focus on advanced MIDI orchestration and realization through music production techniques
  • “Advanced Orchestration” – co-taught with Professor Christos Hatzis
  • “Counterpoint and Diversity” – co-taught with Professor Christos Hatzis