Mark Growden
Mark Growden is a brilliant, curious, and expressive American multi-faceted musician. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, music educator, conductor, and visual artist. In this episode we focus on his large and varied instrument collection and he demonstrates several unusual instruments, including different jaw harps, biclycle handebars, and overtone flutes. He shares his unique journey, and how he developed new skills in response to different challenges and opportunities. I was fascinated to hear about his inspiring recent trip to Kyrgyzstan, about many of his mentors and collaborators, and his expressive approach to musicianship training. Mark has devoted his life to making music for other people and to helping other people make music for themselves, and he is an advocate for openess about respect and understanding for people with neurodivergence and mood disorders. Mark is the founder and Artistic Director of The Calling All Choir, The Chromatic Community Music Center, SF SingFest, and The SF Jaw Harp Choir. He has released several critically acclaimed albums and has toured the US extensively. He has composed original musical scores for dozens of dance and theater companies and scored several films. We are featuring music from 3 of his albums during this episode and you’ll find his discography linked below to his website.
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You may be also interested in these episodes, which focus on Community Music and some unusual instruments as well:
Linsey Pollak, Kavisha Mazzella, Philip Griffin, Polina Shepherd, Jesse Stewart, Sarah Jeffery, and Gary Muszynski
