Four-time Emmy award-nominated composer Robert Duncan is always on the hunt for sounds with personality. On any given day he is tinkering away in his studio searching through his trove of musical oddities, global instruments, deconstructed pianos and industrial salvage, metal brushes, a hot rod exhaust pipe, a fire extinguisher, and many other odds and ends to find something that can add a fresh sonic identity to a score. He was honored by the Television Academy with a fourth Emmy nomination in 2016 for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for his work on Whispers for Amblin Television.
Duncan is currently scoring series ‘S.W.A.T.’ on CBS. Prior to this, he composed the score to the NBC series ‘Timeless’ for its two seasons and television movie event. Scores to both series utilize live orchestra.
For all eight seasons of ABC’s hit series, Castle, Duncan delivered new and unique musical compositions to the show. During that time he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score).
In 2013, Duncan scored the Sony/ABC series The Last Resort, a sweeping action thriller about the crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine who become fugitives after refusing to fire their nuclear missiles. In creating the show’s musical palette, Duncan boarded a decommissioned Cold War era submarine in San Diego with his engineer and recorded experimental sounds to utilize within the score. He earned his third Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) for his work on the series
Shortly after moving to California, Duncan was hired as series composer on the enduring fan-favorite hit series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FOX/UPN). When that series ended, he composed music for Tru Calling (FOX), The Unit (FOX/CBS), Into the Blue 2: The Reef (MGM), Lie to Me (FOX), The Gates, (ABC), Terriers (FX), Chicago Code (FOX), The Family (ABC) and Shattered (Lionsgate) among others.
Fluent across genres, Duncan’s work has been performed by a diverse range of artists from Smashing Pumpkins front-man Billy Corgan to Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops.
