Mark Growden

Mark Growden is an internationally renowned multi-instrumentalist and artist based in San Francisco, CA.

As a composer, multi-instrumentalist and performer, Mark Growden has released several critically acclaimed albums. He has completed many successful US tours, performing at venues such as the Fillmore and Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and Tonic and The Knitting Factory in New York.

Growden has composed original musical scores for a number of dance and theater companies including Joe Goode Performance Group, The Crucible’s Fire Oddyssey, and Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet with whom he won the Isadora Duncan Award for Best Original Score for a New Dance Piece. Growden has also scored several films including “Blood Tea and Red String” which won Best Animation at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.

Growden co-founded and co-produces the underground site-specific performance series COVERT along with famed artist and troublemaker John Law, of Cacophony Society and Suicide Club fame.

Growden’s newest album, “Saint Judas,” is his first studio album of songs in eight years. Recorded live in the studio, it is a stunning exploration of moments of pain and catharsis, love and transformation, tenderness and desire. “Saint Judas” is a rich and haunting collection of stories and melodies that embraces and celebrates the saints and sinners in each of us.

Mark's draws his infuence from a wide range of musical artists, such as: Igor Stravinsky, John Coltrane, Claude Debussy, Eric Dolphy, Maurice Ravel, Charles Mingus, Henry Threadgill, Lomax field recordings especially of prison work songs from the American South, Amalia Rodriguez, Diamanda Galas, Erik Satie, Aaron Copeland, Meredith Monk, Al Green, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Jones, Nina Simone, Blind Willie Johnson, Bluitt Baritone Nation, David Bowie, Howlin' Wolf, Los Lobos, Latin Playboys, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Hildegard von Bingen, Steve Reich

Here's what the press has to say:
“Growden’s voice is bigger than a 10-story building, and when he clacks his cowboy boots on a hollow patch of floor along to some of his tunes, the sound seems to reverberate across the globe.” – Laura Casey, Contra Costa Times

“Fiery, earthy and sublimely sensual.” – Comet Magazine

“A sight and sound you don’t want to miss.” – S.F. Bay Guardian

“An unusual and voracious talent.” – Willamette Week

“Mark Growden has to be on of California’s most colorful and intriguing musicians…. Growden is a genius.” – Albuquerque Alibi

“He writes songs that pusle with drama, songs that slide with grace.” – Tucson Weekly

“Part singer-songwriter, part bluesman, part avant-gardist, he’s an avatar of bohemian weirdness on a par with Tom Waits or Joe Henry.” – Fort Worth Weekly

“Torrid lyricism and fierce accordion rascality. His live shows are becoming the stuff of legend.” – East Bay Express