About Me
Originally from Fresno, CA, Mark Grisez serves as Principal Trumpet of the Indianapolis Symphony. He has previously served as Principal Trumpet of the Columbus Symphony, Acting Associate Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony, and Principal Trumpet of the California Symphony. Additionally, he has played as a guest with ensembles around the world, including the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra in South Korea, Dallas Brass, The Bay Brass, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, One Found Sound, and Nomad Session.
One of Mark’s longtime interests is the social and philosophical side of music-making, which he began exploring as a New World Symphony Fellow in Miami Beach, FL. In 2018, he created The Curious Musician, an online video series for musicians to share thoughts on musicianship, creativity, practice, and personal development. In 2019, he and a team of New World Symphony Fellows designed, programmed, and performed Double Take: The Human Effect, a concert experience exploring the ways in which art helps us make sense of a turbulent world. That same year, Mark and another set of New World colleagues began collaborating with a South Florida juvenile justice organization. Over the course of several months, they visited the classrooms of court-involved high school students to play and write music alongside them, exploring positive relationships and personal growth through the medium of music. As an educator, he has also taught as a coach for the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras, Bravo Waukegan, the Stanford Youth Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, New World Symphony’s MusicLab program, and Iberacademy in Medellín, Colombia.
Mark received his bachelor’s degree in music performance in 2015 from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied under David Burkhart and Mark Inouye. Following his New World Symphony fellowship from 2016 to 2019, he studied under Charles Geyer and Barbara Butler at Rice University from 2019 to 2020.
In his spare time, he enjoys collecting pencils and other fine writing instruments, curating an eclectic personal library of books, and reading too many of those books at the same time.