Emmy Award–winning composer Michele Josia is an accomplished and multi‑awarded composer of film music and choir conductor. His work spans film soundtracks, choral and orchestral compositions, and more than two decades of artistic activity across Europe, Asia, and the United States. A polyhedric and multi‑talented musician, Josia blends his academic mastery of orchestration, composition, the human voice, and choral writing with today’s most advanced digital instrument technologies, achieving a seamless synergy with visual storytelling. With his ensembles, he has won numerous first prizes and special awards in national and international choral competitions (Skofja Loka, Maribor, Bad Ischl, Riva del Garda, Bratislava), as well as official recognitions from the government of
Slovenia. He served as assistant conductor to Fabrizio Barchi, Stojan Kuret, and Urša Lah, and co‑founded the Italian–Slovenian choir “Vocalkor” with Mauro Marchetti. Over the course of his career, Josia has conducted or performed in more than 190 concerts throughout Europe, including appearances at prestigious international competitions (Maribor, Varna, Tolosa, Vittorio Veneto) and in major concert halls such as the Slovenian
Philharmonic Hall, the Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, the Mozarteum Concert Hall in Salzburg, and the Beijing Philharmonic Hall in China. As conductor, assistant conductor, and film composer, he has recorded 22 CDs. He is frequently invited to serve as a jury member in national and international choral and composition competitions, and
as a lecturer for workshops, masterclasses for choir conductors, and seminars on film scoring. Among his collaborations, Josia worked as choir conductor assistant to Ennio Morricone in the preparation of the soundtracks for Vatel, directed by Roland Joffé, Aida degli alberi (Aida of the Trees) by G. Manuli, Padre Pio tra cielo e terra (Padre Pio Between Heaven and Earth) by Giulio Base, La Piovra 10 by Luigi Perelli, and Giuseppe di Nazareth,
directed by Raffaele Mertes with music by Marco Frisina. In December 2011, his music was performed by the renowned American composer, conductor, and Grammy Award winner Eric Whitacre. Josia served as music consultant (uncredited) for the feature film Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy, directed by Robert Dornhelm and produced by Lifetime TV and Craig Anderson Productions (USA), starring Hayden Panettiere. He was later invited as a guest lecturer in film music at the prestigious Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking in Sedona, Arizona (USA), upon invitation from Dan Gordon, one of Hollywood’s most celebrated screenwriters (Wyatt Earp, The Hurricane, Passenger 57, Murder in the First, The Assignment). He made his feature‑length film debut in 2012with Fairytale, produced by RAI Cinema and starring Harriet MacMasters‑Green, Giuliano Montaldo, and JarrethMerz. The film is distributed internationally by RAI Trade, and its soundtrack—produced by Warner Chappell Music—is distributed worldwide.
To date, Michele Josia has composed 42 soundtracks for documentaries, short films, medium‑length films, and feature films, many of which have been selected for major national and international festivals, including the Festival de Cannes (65th and 66th editions), R.I.F.F. – Rome Independent Film Festival, Premi David di Donatello,
California Film Awards (San Diego, USA), Sedona International Film Festival (Arizona, USA), BIFFF – Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, AOF Fest – Action on Film (Los Angeles, USA), Durban International Film Festival (South Africa), Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim‑Heidelberg (Germany), and the International Film Festival of Kerala (India), to name a few. His most recent works include the feature film Two‑Eleven (USA), starring Devin McGee (American Battleship, Fall Down Dead); III Smoking Barrels (India), starring Bollywood actor Indraneil Sengupta (Kahaani, Autograph, Children of War); I Follow You (Italy), starring Hal Yamanouchi (The Wolverine, Push, The Way Back); I Racconti della Domenica, produced by RAI Cinema and starring Nino Frassica, Daniele Vassallo, and Emmanuele Aita; Gate to Heaven, starring Richard Sammel (Inglourious Basterds, Casino Royale, 3 Days to Kill, The Strain) and Revival, starring Armand Assante and Maia Morgenstern. Over the years, Josia has been honored with 34 awards as a composer of concert music and as a conductor, along with 53 industry awards as a film composer. His accolades include the prestigious Emmy Award – Suncoast Chapter for
“Musical/Composition/Arrangement” at the 2021 Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards in Miami (Florida, USA) for his composition River of the Last Valley. He also won the World Entertainment Award for Best Music Score in Los Angeles, and received a nomination for Best Original Score (Feature) at the Cristal Pine Awards of the ISFMF International Sound & Film Music Festival in Samobor (Croatia) for the film Gate to Heaven. With the same score, he was a finalist for Best Score of the Month at the Tracks Music Awards in California. In 2017, he earned the Third Prize – Honorable Mention at the inaugural Film Composer’s Challenge Award, and between 2017 and 2021 he was awarded the Silver Medal – Outstanding Achievement in the category “Soundtrack for Film and Television”
at the Global Music Awards in California for five consecutive years. He also received the prestigious PRAG Cine Award for Best Soundtrack for the film III Smoking Barrels. He is also the only composer of an Italian film to have been pre‑selected—together with 135 other composers, including Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri, Steve Price, to name a few—for the 98th Academy Awards (Oscars) with his score for Joachim and the
Apocalypse. Michele Josia is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy), the International Film Music Society of China, a former member of the Italian Film Academy for the David di Donatello Awards, and a member of the European Film Academy for the European Film Awards. He is represented by The Max Steiner Agency, Hollywood, California, USA.