Richard Johnsen is a South African composer specializing in music for film, television, and theatre.
With a love for drama and storytelling, he has dedicated himself to crafting music that embodies narrative depth and emotional intensity, seamlessly blending acoustic and electronic elements to create evocative and visceral sound worlds.
Bio
Growing up on a small farm outside Cape Town, Johnsen signed up for piano lessons after watching a 20th-anniversary rerelease of Amadeus. Since then, notable career highlights include scoring the HollyShorts selected drama Shouting at the Sea, winning ‘Best Music’ at the Top Indie Critics Film Awards for Danny Cotton's Futurity Infinite, and ‘Best Score’ at the Royal Wolf Film Awards for Cotton’s follow-up, Collide. Additionally, Johnsen produced Mo Phoenix’s “Pearl” for Sky’s Fallen series and orchestrated Sebb Masters’ single “Something’s in the Water” for Blend Films’ Contact Hours.
As of 2024, Johnsen has assisted Dutch-German Composer Jan Willem de With, and Matthew Slater’s music preparation team for Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot and Hulu’s Alien: Earth.
Outside of film, his collaborations include Tête à Tête Opera (Three Penelopes), the English National Ballet School (ENBS Young Choreographers), the Frozen Light Theatre Group (2065), and Emmy-award-winner Hugh Wooldridge (The Last Broadcast).
Johnsen studied music at Durham University before pursuing composition under Dimitri Scarlato and Haris Kittos at the Royal College of Music.