A River Runs Through It

Background:

Mark Isham is a major Hollywood film composer with more than 100 movie and TV credits under his belt. Composing his first score for Disney's “Never Cry Wolf” (1983), he enjoyed huge success as the composer of the 1992 movie “A River Runs Through It” and received an Academy Award nomination for his work on the film. He went on to gain recognition with “Fire in the Sky” (1993), “Nell” (1994), “Blade” (1998), “Men of Honor” (2000), “Crash” (2004) and “Eight Below” (2006) and for his television scores on “Chicago Hope” (1995-2000), “EZ Streets” (1997, earned an Emmy Award) and “Family Law” (1999), for which he received an Emmy. As a noted recording artist, Isham has released a number of albums. He, however, is perhaps most famous as the 1990 Grammy winner of the self-titled album “Mark Isham” and a nominee for “Castalia” (1988) and “Tibet” (1989). “Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Project” (1999), a rendition of the late 1960’s music by Miles Davis, was named the 1999 Best Jazz Album by the London Times. Also a trumpeter and synthesis, Isham has worked and toured with many different artists, including Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Toots Thielemans, Willie Nelson, Ziggy Marley, XTC, Hector Zazou, David Sylvian, Lyle Lovett, David Torn, and Tanita Tikaram.

Scientologist

Childhood and Family:

Mark Isham was born on September 7, 1951, in New York, New York. He came from a musical family in which his father was a music teacher and his mother was a violinist. As a result, Mark was exposed to music as a child and played the piano, trumpet and violin. After his family relocated to San Francisco, California, he also studied synthesizers.

Mark is a Scientologist. Currently, he resides in Los Angeles.

Castalia

Career:

Mark Isham kicked of his professional career as a trumpeter at age 12 when he performed with a small symphony orchestra in New York. Upon relocating to San Francisco, he played with some local orchestras and during the 1960s, was frequently seen in the Bay Area rock and roll circuit performing live with a variety of local groups.

In 1970, the New York native joined a group called Beefy Red and performed in such music venues as Lion's Share in Marin and Lion's Share in San Francisco. He stayed with the band until it broke up in early 1972.

Two years later, Isham played in The Sons of Champlin with drummer James Preston and horn player Phil Woods, who was an ex-member of Beefy Red. It was with the group that Isham had his first taste of recording with “Marp,” an instrumental song he wrote and performed. The song was included in The Sons' self-titled debut that was released in 1975.

Isham next joined pianist Art Lande to form the quartet group Rubisa Patrol in 1976. A self-titled debut album was released later that same year and the followed up, “Desert Marauders,” hit the music stores two years later in 1978. Despite producing only two albums, the group was able to establish Isham's reputation as a solo trumpeter. Although trumpet became his main instrument, Isham branched out to electronic music in the early 1970s and gradually built up a status as a synthesizer programmer. He became a touring and session musician for such jazz and pop artists as Pharoah Sanders, Charles Lloyd, the Beach Boys, and Van Morrison. Making his debut as a session artist in 1977 when he performed on the Taj Mahal album “Evolution (The Most Recent),” Isham was recruited by Van Morrison to play synthesizer and trumpet on four of his albums that were released during 1979 to 1983, namely “Into the Music,” “Common One,” “Beautiful Vision” and “Inarticulate Speech of the Heart.” An industrious musician, Isham still found time to perform with his own group, Group 87, which he founded in 1979 with guitarist Peter Maunu, bassist Patrick O'Hearn and drummer Terry Bozzio. They released the albums “Group 87” in 1980 and “A Career in Dada Processing” in 1984.

1983 marked a banner year for Isham. In addition to making his debut as a solo recording artist with the launch of “Vapor Drawings,” he also scored his first film, “Never Cry Wolf,” which was directed by Carroll Ballard. Through “Vapor Drawings,” which became the first album released on the Windham Hill label to feature the large use of synthesizers, Isham made a name for himself as a composer good at merging modern jazz and electronic music. Meanwhile, “Never Cry Wolf” soon put the composer on the radar of filmmakers and he was flooded with other film score assignments.

After composing scores for Gillian Armstrong's “Mrs. Soffel” (1984) and the Academy Award winning documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984), Isham compiled his first three film works for the sophomore album “Film Music” (1985). Also in 1985, he collaborated with filmmaker Alan Rudolph on “Trouble in Mind.” After the project “Made in Heaven” (1987), Isham was handed a Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Music for his score in Rudolph's “The Moderns” (1988). The two went on to work together on “Love at Large” (1990) and “Mortal Thoughts” (1991).

Isham teamed up with fellow jazz musician Art Lande for his next studio album, “We Begin” (1987). He brought more musicians to the 1988 album “Castalia,” including former Group 87 band members Peter Maunu, Patrick O'Hearn and Terry Bozzio. A first album with Virgin Records, “Castalia” (1988), won Isham a Grammy nomination for Best New Age Performance. He received another nomination for “Tibet” (1989) and eventually won the statue in 1990 for “Mark Isham.”

In 1992, Isham completed his scores for the “Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics” series of videos and CDs. Some of actors who narrated these projects are Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons and William Hurt. Also that year, Isham launched “Five Stories for Trumpet and Orchestra,” but it was his Oscar nominated work on the Robert Redford movie “A River Runs Through It” (1992) that really brought Isham back in the limelight. He was nominated for Best Music, Original Score at the Academy Awards and netted a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television.

A productive film score composer, Isham followed the success with work on “Of Mice and Men” (1992), “Short Cuts” (1993), “Romeo Is Bleeding” (1993), “Quiz Show” (1994), “Timecop” (1994), “The Net” (1995), “Afterglow” (1997), “Kiss the Girls” (1997), “The Education of Little Tree” (1997) and “October Sky” (1999). He netted a Saturn nomination for Best Music for “Fire in the Sky” (1993), a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture for “Nell” (1994) and an ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films for “Blade” (1998). During that period, Isham also worked on several TV programs, most notably “Chicago Hope,” which brought him two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music (1995 and 1996), “Nothing Sacred” (1997), from which he earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, and “Family Law” (1999), which won him an ASCAP Award. He took home a 1997 Emmy in the category of Outstanding Main Title Theme Music for his work in an episode of “EZ Streets” called “A Terrible Beauty.”

As a recording artist, Isham released “Blue Sun” in 1995, his first album since 1991's “Songs My Children Taught Me.” “Blue Sun” was recorded for Columbia and established Isham as a full-fledged contemporary jazz artist. It was followed by “Mark Isham: A Windham Hill Retrospective” in 1998 and a live album called “Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Project” in 1999.

Isham has continued his active career in the world of cinema. His more recent scoring credits include “Rules of Engagement” (2000), the vehicle of Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr., “Men of Honor” (2000), from which he nabbed a Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack Album For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media, “Life as a House” (2001), the Michael Douglas vehicle “Don't Say a Word” (2001), “Save the Last Dance” (2001), “The Cooler” (2003), Robert Harmon's “Highwaymen” (2003), David Mamet's “Spartan” (2004), Philip Kaufman's “Twisted” (2004), “Racing Stripes” (2005), “Running Scared” (2006), Brian De Palma's “The Black Dahlia” (2006), “Bobby” (2006), “Pride and Glory” (2007), “Lions for Lambs” (2007) and “The Mist” (2007). Also a music producer, Isham was handed an AFI FILM for Movies of the Year for his work in Paul Haggis' critically acclaimed “Crash” (2004), which won three Oscars, including Best Motion Picture of the Year. He won an ASCAP award for the 2006 drama “Eight Below,” which was directed by Frank Marshall and starred Paul Walker of “The Fast and the Furious” fame.

The recipient of Hollywood Film Festival's Composer of the Year Award (2007) has completed scoring music for the films “The Express” (2008), a drama directed by Gary Fleder and starring Dennis Quaid as Ben Schwartzwalder, and “Pride of Glory” (2009), a football film with Colin Farrell and Edward Norton starring in the roles of Jimmy Egan and Ray Tierney, respectively.

Awards:

• Hollywood Film Festival: Hollywood Film Award, Composer of the Year, 2007

• ASCAP Film and Television Music: Top Box Office Films, “Eight Below,” 2007

• ASCAP Film and Television Music: Henry Mancini Award, 2006

• AFI FILM: Movies of the Year, “Crash,” 2005

• ASCAP Film and Television Music: Top TV Series, “Family Law,” 2000

• ASCAP Film and Television Music: Top Box Office Films, “Blade,” 1999

• Emmy: Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, “EZ Streets,” Episode “A Terrible Beauty,” 1997

• Grammy: Best New Age Performance, “Mark Isham,” 1990

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Music, “The Moderns,” 1988