Mark Orton

Mark Orton’s the kind of guy who seems to have fingers in every musical pie you can think of. Founding Tin Hat—a group that’s all over the map genre-wise—he’s cooked up scores for a wild range of films: Nebraska, My Old Lady, Everything Is Illuminated, The Box Trolls, 12 Mighty Orphans, and honestly, that’s just scratching the surface. The man’s even had his stuff pop up in all sorts of docs and big-deal series, like Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts and Netflix’s Working: What We Do All Day. Even Pixar’s Loop got the Orton treatment. He’s not just some bedroom composer, either. Trained at Peabody and Hartt, snagged a Sundance Composer Fellowship, and the critics have noticed—he snagged a nomination for Best New Composer, too. Mark’s a multi-instrumentalist, but not in the “plays a bit of guitar and piano” way. The guy collects weird, old instruments most people have never heard of—and somehow manages to fit them into his scores. It’s kind of his thing. Orton’s work isn’t just stuck in the world of film. He’s all over radio and podcasts—This American Life, All Things Considered, that crazy Wind of Change series. As an arranger, he’s teamed up with legends like Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Madeline Peyroux, even Mike Patton. He’s still out there writing for modern dance, circus acts (yeah, for real), radio dramas, and actual concert halls. These days he’s based in the Pacific Northwest, hanging out with his wife and son, probably surrounded by a pile of bizarre old instruments and sheet music.