Music
Mark Adler
Mark Adler has a background in both film and music. He created an award-winning animated short (acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art) and received an American Film Institute grant while in his teens. He studied piano privately for 15 years, and returned to music after graduation from the UCLA film school. Adler won a Primetime Emmy for his work on HBO’s The Rat Pack and was nominated for Forbidden Territory: Stanley’s Search for Livingstone, starring Nigel Hawthorne. Other television projects include scores for over 40 documentaries (including numerous National Geographic Specials) and 18 TV movies (among them, two for Hallmark Hall of Fame). He also composed the theme for the PBS series American Experience. His feature film scores include Paramount Classics’ Focus, based on Arthur Miller’s novel and starring William H. Macy and Laura Dern, the Miramax film Picture Bride, Wayne Wang’s Eat a Bowl of Tea and three Oscar-nominated feature documentaries. Recent projects include Bottle Shock, starring Alan Rickman and the recent Participant documentary, Food, Inc. He is a vice-president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists.
Mark Watters
Mark Watters is a six-time Emmy Award winner whose diverse composing credits include Doug’s First Movie, Kronk’s New Groove, Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves for Disney, The Pebble and the Penguin and All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 for MGM, as well as over 300 episodes of various television series, including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Tiny Toon Adventures, The New Pink Panther, All Dogs Go to Heaven, 101 Dalmatians and NBC’s A Very Muppet Christmas. In 1996, Watters served as music director for the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, for which he received a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Musical Direction and a nomination for the song “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” performed by opera legend Jessye Norman and co-written with lyricist Lorraine Feather. He was also music director for the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, where he had the honor of working with the Utah Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Again, he was awarded the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Musical Direction. Other credits include his Emmy-winning score to Disney’s nature series, True Life Adventures, and the TV movies Meet the Santas and The Long Shot.
