Mark Grisez is a trumpet player, writer, and based in Houston, Texas.
From 2014 to 2016, Mark played as Acting Associate Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony and was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month in May 2015. He moved to Miami Beach in the fall of 2016 and spent three years as a Trumpet Fellow of the New World Symphony. He has formerly held the position of Principal Trumpet of the California Symphony, played as Guest Principal Trumpet of the Louisville Orchestra, and performed with a variety of other ensembles, including The Bay Brass, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, One Found Sound, and Nomad Session, a pop-up wind octet of which he is a founding member. During the summers, he has performed at the Tanglewood Music Center, with the National Repertory Orchestra, and with the Eastern Sierra Symphony.
One of Mark’s primary interests is expanding the role that performers and artists can play socially, interpersonally, and politically in our world. In 2018, he created The Curious Musician, a Facebook-hosted video and content series for young musicians seeking ways to deepen their practice and creativity. In 2019, he and a team of New World Symphony Fellows programmed, curated, and performed in Double Take: The Human Effect, a concert experience exploring the ways in which art helps make sense of a turbulent world. That same year, he started a collaboration in which New World Symphony musicians made weekly visits to a South Florida juvenile justice organization, playing and writing music together with small groups of court-involved high school students to explore positive relationships and personal growth. He has also taught as a brass coach for the Stanford Youth Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, New World Symphony’s Musiclab program, and Iberacademy in Medellín, Colombia. He has led classes as a guest at California State University, Sacramento and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Mark received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance in 2015 from the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied under David Burkhart and Mark Inouye. He currently attends Rice University in pursuit of his Master’s Degree. In his spare time, he enjoys writing, curating a collection of fine pencils, reading too many books, and running.