Double bassist and composer Garth Stevenson was raised in the mountains of Western Canada, where nature became his primary inspiration and the common thread between his life and music. His three full-length solo albums, Alpine, Flying, and Voyage, are informed by his experiences carrying his 160-year-old double bass to the woods, beach, desert, and other remote locations, including Antarctica and Tuva.
His month-long journey to Antarctica in 2010 aboard the icebreaker, Ushuaia, was home to author Cormac McCarthy, actress Juliette Binoche, artists Todd Murphy, Gregory Colbert, and others. Stevenson played his double bass among seals, penguins, and icebergs and attracted whales by imitating their sounds on his bass.
As a film composer, 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.
Garth Stevenson has been leading Music Meditation Hikes for the past ten years at Wanderlust Festivals. With his double bass strapped to his back, he leads groups on hikes to beautiful locations in nature, where he improvises music that blends and interacts with the natural environment.
Stevenson attended the Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship and received a degree in Performance and Jazz Composition.
