John Swihart is an American musical composer for film and television. He is perhaps best known for his score to ''

Napoleon Dynamite ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy ...

'', '' Youth in Revolt'', '' Employee of the Month'', and his music for the TV shows '' How I Met Your Mother'', and ''

Go On Go On may refer to: * Go On (TV series), ''Go On'' (TV series), a TV series starring Matthew Perry * ''Go On...'', the third album by American pop band Mr. Mister * Go On (George Strait song), "Go On" (George Strait song), a country music song reco ...

''. John Swihart was raised in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

, the son of a physicist based at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

. He spent a portion of his formative years in Europe and Asia, where his father would sabbatical. John had some musical training at a very young age but was not deeply absorbed by music until he was about eight. Swihart would leave Indiana to attend Berklee College of Music, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. He graduated in 1986. Swihart played

Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines ...

, Bass,

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

and

Zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...

in the Boston, New York and Las Vegas

Blue Man Group Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, bot ...

shows, on his way to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. His breakout film project ''

'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.

Works

Films

2000s

2010s

2020s

Television series

Video game

Awards and nominations

Golden Satellite Award The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take place ...

(2004) for best original score (''Napoleon Dynamite'') *

Grammy Nomination The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

(2006) for best compilation soundtrack album for motion picture, television or other visual media (''Napoleon Dynamite'')

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swihart, John Living people American film score composers American television composers Berklee College of Music alumni American male film score composers Male television composers Musicians from Bloomington, Indiana Year of birth missing (living people)