Mark Smythe, composer and SCL officer, dies at 53 after hiking accident

A loss for the screen composing world

Composer Mark Smythe died on May 9 after collapsing while hiking on Mt. Wilson in Los Angeles. He was 53. According to Billboard, Smythe was a central figure in the film and TV composing community, both for his work on screen and for his years of service to the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL).

Born in New Zealand, Smythe later moved to Australia before relocating to Los Angeles in 2013 to pursue film and concert composing full-time. He had been an APRA AMCOS member since 2004 and worked as client and legal liaison in the organization's Melbourne office for four years in the early 2000s.

Composer, educator, administrator

Smythe served as the SCL's chief operating officer from 2018 to 2021, following an earlier role as Los Angeles administrator. At the time of his death, he was teaching media composition at California State University, Northridge, and was Department Head of Composing for Visual Media at the Los Angeles College of Music.

His scoring work earned him a 2023 SCL Award nomination and a World Soundtrack Award nomination for The Reef: Stalked, as well as three Hollywood Music in Media Award nominations for Unfallen, Flying South, and The Things She Did. His score for Daddy's Little Girl won him the Australian Screen Industry Network award for best composer in 2012.

Smythe had also been composing choral works and had collaborated with the LA Choral Lab on several projects.

Tributes

SCL president Ashley Irwin described the loss as "a profound shock" to the community. "For many, Mark was the first friend they made at the SCL," Irwin said. APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston called his passing "a great loss to the screen composing world."

Smythe is survived by his sister, Kate Ward-Smythe.