Nathan Barr


Nathan Barr is an American film and television composer known for playing the majority of the instruments heard in his compositions. While he is best known for scoring all seven seasons of HBO's Emmy Award-winning series, True Blood, Barr has recently composed music for FX's The Americans and Netflix's Hemlock Grove. On July 18, 2013, Barr garnered a double Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music" based on his work on The Americans and Hemlock Grove.

Life and career

Barr started studying music in Tokyo, Japan at the age of four. His interest in music and collecting rare and unusual instruments lead him to travel all over the world. He has said he owns a trumpet made out of a human femur and a set of bagpipes out of a pig's belly. More recently, he has acquired and installed the Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ from the 20th Century Fox sound stage. Barr studied at Skidmore College, and in 1993 toured Italy and Switzerland with the Juilliard Cello Ensemble.
In 1996, Barr moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in composing film and television scores. One of his first jobs was working under the tutelage of world-renowned composer, Hans Zimmer, on films such as As Good as It Gets and The Prince of Egypt. Shortly thereafter, he branched out on his own and landed his first solo-venture on the Lionsgate comedy Too Smooth. Since then, Barr has scored a large array of feature films and TV series, most notably scoring all episodes of HBO's hit series True Blood.

Filmography

Film

Television series

Awards