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Mark Grey
Mark Grey (b. January 1, 1967, Evanston, Illinois) is a composer and sound designer from the San Francisco area who is now living in New York City. His compositions have been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. Grey made his Carnegie Hall debut with Kronos Quartet in November 2003 and was a featured composer in the OtherMinds 10 Festival, March 2004, to commemorate its tenth anniversary. Other composers and performers in the festival included Tigran Mansurian (Armenia), Hanna Kulenty (Poland), Stefan Hussong (Germany), Francis Dhomont (France) and jazz bass legend Alex Blake (U.S.).
Grey’s two movement composition Bertoia was included as part of Kronos' evening-length program Visual Music which has been performed at Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Barbican (London), Het Muziktheater (Amsterdam), Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall (New York City), Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (Sydney, AUS) Royce Hall (Los Angeles), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Melbourne and Perth International Festival (AUS).
Recent commissions include works for The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival, Kronos Quartet, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Leila Josefowicz, Paul Dresher Ensemble, The California EARUnit, Joan Jeanrenaud (former Kronos cellist) and the Los Angeles Master Chorale (to be performed during the 06/07 season). Music critic Mark Swed also listed Grey’s name in the Los Angeles Times’ – Faces to Watch 2006, Classical Music Section.
Recent premieres include Grey’s San Andreas Suite performed by violin prodigy Leila Josefowicz at Carnegie Hall in New York City, November 2005, and upcoming at her Ravinia Festival performances in the summer of 2006. Also in the summer of 2006, Josefowicz will premiere Grey’s violin concerto titled Elevation at the Colorado Music Festival with conductor Michael Christie and at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music with conductor Marin Alsop.
Grey's music can be heard on Joan Jeanrenaud's debut CD, Metamorphosis, released on New Albion Records, also the NPR/Nonesuch Records/Carnegie Hall radio series Creators at Carnegie as well as Leila Josefowicz’s April 2005 Warner Classics release.
Grey’s professional sound design relationships have led him to work with such artists and organizations as John Adams, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Kronos Quartet and The Paul Dresher Ensemble. He has premiered major works for composers John Adams, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley and Paul Dresher. He was the Artistic Collaborator, Sound Designer and Soundscape Engineer for John Adam's On the Transmigration of Souls — a work conceived for its New York Philharmonic premiere, and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 2002, in memory of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The work was for large orchestra, adult chorus, child chorus and soundscapes— consisting of a massive surround sound system including Max/MSP programming. Other concert hall surround sound designs and performances of the piece have included Avery Fisher Hall (New York City), Royal Albert Hall (London), Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (Sydney) and the Concertgebow (Amsterdam). The work received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music as well as three Grammy Awards in 2005.
Additionally Grey served as Sound Designer for Adams’ new opera Doctor Atomic – which premiered in San Francisco, October 2005. Performances of the opera include Chicago, Amsterdam, The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and the English National Opera in London.
Grey also designed the sound for Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur, for electric violin and orchestra. The work premiered as part of Disney Hall’s gala opening in Los Angeles, October 2003 and in the summer of 2004 was performed at Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC PROMS and at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California.
Grey attended California State University at San Jose, and received both a B.A. and M.A. degree in Composition and Electro-Acoustic Music under the direction of composer, and former International Computer Music Association president, Allen Strange and composer Pablo Furman. It was at this time that Grey began to develop his two musical lifestyles, creating both a composition and a technical nature to his work. During his first editorial internship at Keyboard Magazine he published technical materials and wrote a monthly column from 1990 through 1996, while simultaneously beginning to receive awards for solo, chamber, orchestral, and electronic composition.
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