Mark Orton

Mark Orton grew up in a musical family. The son of a conductor, he began studying composition in high school later attending both The Hartt School of Music and The Peabody Conservatory. After school Orton relocated to San Francisco with the other members of the newly formed Tin Hat Trio, a composer collective that would go on to produce seven critically acclaimed albums and afford the opportunity for him to work as an arranger and producer with some iconic singers including Tom Waits, Mike Patton, and Willie Nelson.

Outside of Tin Hat, Orton is active as an award winning film composer. A recipient of a Sundance composer fellowship he was nominated Best New Composer by The International Film Music Critics Association. He has written scores for and contributed music to films including The Good Girl, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, Sweet Land, Comrades in Dreams, Everything Is Illuminated, Mine, Buck, The Revisionaries, Fernando Meirelles' 360, and Alexander Payne's Nebraska. His another projects include the features Big Significant Things, My Old Lady and Ken Burns' The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, as well as the Laika production Box Trolls.

Orton is both a multi-instrumentalist (performing on all manner of strings, keyboards, and percussion) and a collector of unusual and antique instruments, which he often employs in his scores. Aside from film he has written extensively for both modern dance and circus - collaborations include: Pilobolus, Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance, Big Man Arts, Do Jump, The Pickle Family Circus, Project Bandaloop, and Le 7 Doigts de la Main. He lives in The Great Pacific Northwest with his wife and son.

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