Doug Wilde
Composer/Keyboardist
Bio
Doug Wilde was born into a musical family and raised in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario. Although initially self-taught, Doug was able to talk his way into a few music schools. At Humber College he studied arranging with the legendary Ron Collier and was awarded the Duke Ellington Memorial Scholarship. He later studied film scoring and advanced arranging with Rayburn Wright and Manny Albam at the Eastman School of Music – and earned both a master’s degree in composition and a PhD in music theory/composition from York University.
Despite his academic ramblings Doug Wilde has spent most of his professional life as a composer, crafting scores for various media. Although this work is often anonymous and ephemeral, decades of writing all kinds of music on demand for others developed in Wilde a confident eclecticism. When Doug writes for himself a distinctive voice is evident – harmonically rich and melodic, yet idiosyncratic and at times quirky. This voice can be heard on previous jazz recordings under his own name – Secret Places and Rhymes with Reason, as principle composer for the jazz fusion ensemble Manteca – Monday Night at The Mensa Disco, The Twelfth of Never, Augmented Indifference, and The Offspring Project, and also on his “ambient” Sonic Journeys series.
As a composer and founding partner of the Toronto music production company Harris Cole Wilde (later known as Jungle Music), Doug spent many years writing and learning on the front lines – creating all kinds of music, working with great musicians and recording every day. As a screen composer, Doug has created well over 1500 scores for radio and television commercials – including numerous scores for TV variety, documentary programming and radio drama. Doug also has extensive experience as a music director for live television. He has composed, arranged, and led bands for the Gemini and Genie awards, weekly national variety shows, Canada Day from Parliament Hill and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Doug is the principal composer, music director, and keyboard player for the Canadian world/ jazz /fusion ensemble Manteca. Since 2021 Wilde has created over 100 short videos for YouTube featuring recent compositions.
Wilde’s 2024 musical offering, The Sixth Dimension, is a unique exploration of non-traditional harmonic environments built from six-note scales.