23 Facts About Todor Kobakov

Todor Kobakov was born on September 19,1978 and is a Bulgarian-Canadian composer, producer, arranger and pianist based in Toronto, Ontario.

Todor Kobakov is best known for his film score for Brother, directed by Clement Virgo, his solo album, Pop Music, and his musical collaborations with artists including 070 Shake and Metric.

Todor Kobakov comes from a family of classical musicians all of whom are bass players.

Todor Kobakov's grandmother played in the Bulgarian opera and his mother worked at Bulgarian National Television as a producer of music programming.

Todor Kobakov moved to Canada at age sixteen and graduated from the University of Toronto Music Faculty Program with a Performance Piano Degree at age twenty.

The owner, David Krystal, schooled Todor Kobakov on composing music for picture, including the use of production equipment for sound design and mixing.

Todor Kobakov landed his first commercial, a Nikon spot, in 2000.

Todor Kobakov went on to a successful run as a freelance composer landing over a dozen Canadian commercials.

In 2007, Todor Kobakov landed his first major international campaign for Vodafone Europe.

In 2010, Todor Kobakov scored Canadian Cancer Society's short film "Fight", which won the Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

In 2003, Todor Kobakov wrote the string arrangements for indie pop band Stars critically acclaimed sophomore album Set Yourself On Fire.

Todor Kobakov gained considerable attention when Pitchfork Media gave the album an 8.4 rating stating that "it might be the best orchestral pop album of the past year".

Todor Kobakov went on to score string arrangements for other prominent Canadian indie artists including Metric, Emily Haines, k-os, Sarah Slean, Lindy, Small Sins and Dan Mangan.

Todor Kobakov has toured as a keyboardist with Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton, Luke Doucet and Small Sins.

That same year Todor Kobakov was named "Toronto's Best Keyboardist" by Now Magazine.

In July 2010, Metric enlisted Todor Kobakov to compose a string version of their breakthrough album Fantasies to be performed at Vivid Live, a music festival held in Sydney, Australia curated by Lou Reed and Lori Anderson.

Todor Kobakov accompanied Haines to the festival where she performed the songs accompanied by a string quartet.

Todor Kobakov played piano as Haines and Lou Reed performed Reed's song "Perfect Day".

Metric commissioned Todor Kobakov to compose a string version of "Eclipse ", the theme song from the movie The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which Metric co-wrote with Howard Shore.

Canadian hip-hop artist k-os commissioned Todor Kobakov to compose string arrangements for his MTV Unplugged performance on March 31,2011.

Todor Kobakov has since gravitated to darker, grittier films such as Fury, Cold Blooded, Monster Brawl, Pinkville, Sympathy, and Hit List, 2011.

Todor Kobakov won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Score at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023 for Brother.

Todor Kobakov has released two electronic albums under the moniker Cy Scobie.