Jon Opstad is a London-based composer, working across film, television, contemporary dance, concert music and album projects. His music often combines contemporary classical elements with electronics, merging acoustic instrumentation with both modern and vintage electronic instruments and techniques.
Some of Jon’s notable scoring work includes the hit Netflix drama series Bodies, starring Stephen Graham; the 6-part Elisabeth Moss thriller The Veil for FX/Disney Plus (incorporating themes by composer Max Richter, who recommended Jon to Elisabeth Moss for the project); and two separate episodes of acclaimed dystopian drama Black Mirror (White Bear and the feature-length special White Christmas starring Jon Hamm). From 2018 to 2025, Jon was the composer for the major Ubisoft video game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.
Other scores include BBC period drama The Woman In White; 10-part Amazon Prime dystopian sci-fi drama The Feed, starring David Thewlis; two seasons of crime thriller We Hunt Together; powerful BBC feature documentary Surviving 9/11; hit Netflix documentary series Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99; the second series of ITV thriller Safe House; 5-part BBC thriller Thirteen, starring Jodie Comer; the acclaimed BAFTA-winning Channel 4 docudrama The Murder Detectives; BAFTA-winning BBC single drama Don’t Take My Baby from writer Jack Thorne; BAFTA-nominated TV movie Cyberbully; Channel 4’s The Watchman; and the Savile episode of Louis Theroux’s hard-hitting documentary series for BBC Two.
Jon was nominated for Music & Sound Awards three years in a row in 2022, 2023 and 2024, for his scores for Surviving 9/11, Merkel and title music for Bodies respectively.
Jon studied music at Cambridge University and film music at the National Film & Television School. After graduating, he began his career by working extensively as an additional music composer, programmer and orchestrator for a range of composers including Jocelyn Pook, Martin Phipps, Ruth Barrett, Sheridan Tongue and Richard Thomas, across many film, television and stage projects. Jon combines his classical music education with extensive knowledge and experience of other areas of music including electronic music and jazz. He is highly experienced in the use of analogue synthesisers and his London studio includes an extensive collection of vintage instruments. He is also a published writer on the history and analysis of jazz.
Jon’s composition Blue Sky, White Clouds, for string quintet and piano, was released as a single on Deutsche Grammophon in 2020. In 2022 he released the album Extensions: Music for Computer-Controlled Prepared Piano. Jon was nominated for a British Composer Award (now Ivors Classical Award) in 2014, in the Stage Works category, for his score for contemporary dance work Ignis, combining solo violin with electronics. Radio broadcasts of his music include BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, In Tune and Unclassified programmes, Classic FM, and New Sounds on New York radio station WNYC, for which Jon was interviewed for an episode discussing his music in 2015.