Garth Stevenson(I)

New York-based composer, Garth Stevenson, creates music for film, television, and visual media, uniquely drawing his inspiration from nature. Stevenson grew up in the mountains of Western Canada, where he learned to play piano and double bass and cultivated a harmony with the natural elements that surrounded him. His time spent playing his 160-year-old bass in remote locations such as Antarctica and Tuva has inspired three studio albums, Flying, Voyage, and Alpine. He has also played his instrument on more than 50 studio albums for other artists.

"So much of my sound and musical vocabulary evolved from the thousands of hours I've spent playing alone in nature," says Stevenson. "Scouting locations, getting lost in the woods, encountering animals-it's all such a journey before I even take my bass out of the case. It's that journey that I hope comes across in the music."

Stevenson recently collaborated for the second time with critically-acclaimed director John Curran on the biographical drama Chappaquiddick, starring Kate Mara and Jason Clarke. Curran and Stevenson's first collaboration was on the 2013 dramatic biography, Tracks which featured Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver. Stevenson lent an anguished beauty to the Antarctic-set drama Red Knot, and sensitively scored the PBS Independent Lens documentary, Young Lakota, a touching story about Native Americans, politics, and abortion. Stevenson also scored the drama Ten Thousand Saints starring Hailee Steinfeld and Ethan Hawke, and the wildly successful Sundance thriller Them That Follow, starring Olivia Coleman, Jim Gaffigan, and Walton Goggins.

Stevenson's most recent work is the A24/Amazon Studios documentary Val, a visceral and intimate film chronicling the 40-year career of Val Kilmer, which premiered at the 2021 Cannes International Film Festival.