Mark Isham

Mark Isham – born on September 7, 1951, in New York City, New York - is an accomplished trumpet and synthesizer player who achieved success in new age and electronic music before he turned to composing music for movies. He continued to perform and record his own music as he clocked up a long list of feature film scores for directors such as Alan Rudolph, Kathryn Bigelow, Jodie Foster, and Robert Altman. He has also provided the music for several television series. Born into a musical family, Mark Isham studied classical music and played trumpet, piano and violin when he was very young. When the family moved to San Francisco, he mixed orchestral work with playing in rock, pop and jazz bands and dabbling with music on synthesizers. Employed steadily as a session musician and as a sideman with such jazzmen as Charles Lloyd and Pharoah Sanders, he also featured with pop acts including The Beach Boys and Van Morrison. After a stint with pianist Art Lande's Rubisia Patrol quartet, he worked with high profile artists such as The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, and others. Signed by the Windham Hill label, in 1983, Mark Isham released his first solo album, Vapor Drawings, and scored his first film, Never Cry Wolf, which attracted attention for its mix of acoustic sounds with a synthesizer. More solo albums followed: Casalia (1988) and Tibet (1989) earned Grammy Award nominations before he won in 1990 for his album Mark Isham. Prolific in movie scores, he collaborated with director Alan Rudolph on such films as Trouble in Mind (1985), Made in Heaven (1987), The Moderns (1988), Love at Large (1990), Mortal Thoughts (1991) and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994). He picked up an Academy Award nomination for his music to Robert Redford's 1992 drama A River Runs Through It and worked with Redford again on Quiz Show (1994). He scored Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break (1991), Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993) and the Jodie Foster films Little Man Tate (1991) and Home for the Holidays (1995). Mark Isham’s TV work includes Family Law (1999-2000), Crash (2008-2009), Once Upon a Time (2011-2017) and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013-2014). Further film scoring projects include Life as a House (2001), The Black Dahlia (2006), The Mist (2007), Fame (2009), Dolphin Tale (2011), The Conjuring (2013), Dirty Dancing (2017), and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021).