Houston Grand Opera
January 2013
Review: Applause in Unlikely Places: A Conductor Who Rewrites the Rules
The New York Times, March 29, 2013
Review: John Adams Thinks Big in New Telling of the Gospel
WQXR Operavore blog, March 28, 2013
Review: The Gospel According to the Other Mary - Barbican, London
The Guardian, March 17, 2013
Review: 'Gospel According to the Other Mary' emerges reborn
Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2013
"There was further help from Mark Grey's amplification, which highlighted the vocal essence of each singer and provided an ideal balance with the orchestra."
full review
Los Angeles Philharmonic
March 2013
Lyric Opera of Chicago
May 2013
Review: Grand staging for 'Oklahoma' in the hands of Lyric Opera
Chicago Tribune, May 5, 2013
Lyric Opera of Chicago is getting miked for Oklahoma!
ChicagoReader.com blog, May 2, 2013
...The kudos should go to sound designer and composer Mark Grey, the whiz behind the technology. Longtime soundman for composer John Adams (and many others), Grey is the guy who made Lyric shake for Doctor Atomic. His own composing commissions include a soon-to-be-written opera version of Frankenstein, which maybe we'll get to see at Lyric someday.
Grey says amplified sound tends to be "two-dimensional," while the sound of a traditional opera is wider, broader, and, at the same time, more intimate. But even for opera, he adds, the way we listen is changing. Things like the Metropolitan Opera simulcasts to movie theaters are delivering sound that's different from what's being heard in the opera house; younger audiences are accustomed to the clarity of digital; and contemporary composers are incorporating the vast, electronic soundscape.
"I think technology will play a huge part on the opera stage. We're at the forefront," Grey says. "But in a case like Oklahoma!, we want to keep it as natural as possible."
September 2012 | Info
The much-anticipated Proms performance of John Adams's Nixon in China, conducted by the composer himself and directed by Paul Curran, marked the 25th anniversary of the work's groundbreaking premiere. Arguably the most influential opera of the last few decades, it has lost none of its power and remains Adams' finest stage work. And though the events it depicts might no longer seem like recent history to some, its analysis of the relationships between personal and political integrity, and between ideological sincerity and fanaticism, has, if anything, gained greater relevance with time... | Full Review
June 2012 |
Info
The last time Bay Area audiences heard John Adams' "Nixon in China" was in 1987, in an unstaged reading in Herbst Theatre with piano accompaniment that scarcely hinted at the work's depth and originality. On Friday night, a mere quarter-century later, the San Francisco Opera corrected that oversight with a suave, imaginative and superbly sung production.
Welcome home, Mr. Nixon. It's been too long. | Full Review
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Music by Jerome Kern
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Staged by Francesca Zambello
Conducted by John DeMain
The curtain will rise on a richly detailed vision of that bygone era when Show Boat docks for the first time at Lyric. The sumptuous new production, staged by Francesca Zambello and conducted by John DeMain, promises to delight your eyes and ears. The sensational cast includes Broadway star Ashley Brown; Lyric favorite Nathan Gunn; three more operatic luminaries – Alyson Cambridge, Morris Robinson, and Angela Renée Simpson; and some of Chicago’s most gifted actors.
For Zambello, musical theater is American opera. “With it we have forged something as popular as opera was in the 19th century. Opera and musical theater can live harmoniously in our American theater and opera-house landscape. Show Boat gives us a rich study in opera, operetta, vaudeville, and musical comedy, but – equally important – a compelling American story of social and political importance. more articles | videos
Evoking the past pioneers of electronic music, musique concrete, and music of the avant-garde, Mark Grey created a dramatic new sonic score and design for Peter Sellars' markedly innovative production of Shakespeare's Othello, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman (Iago) and John Ortiz (Othello). His all-electronic "symphonie mecanique" score for Othello uses an elaborate surround-sound environment to transport theatre audiences through colorful and complex sonic worlds into the haunting world of Shakespeare's timeless tale of jealousy and betrayal. The work premiered at the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, Austria) in June 2009, then proceeded to the K15 Festival in Bochum, Germany. Othello was also staged from Sept. 12-Oct. 4, 2009, at the Public Theater in New York City.
Videos: "Inside Othello" video | Othello in the Age of Obama Pt 1 | Othello in the Age of Obama Pt 2 | Philip Seymour Hoffman interview
Wiener Festwochen, Vienna, Austria, June 2010
Directed by Peter Stein
Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Daniele Gatti, conductor
Sound Designer (live) and producer (studio) for recordings of offstage bands; design for live production
Sound designer, recording and production engineer, synthesizer/sampler programmer, technical coordinator, and archivist for one of the most prolific composers of our time. Coordinate technical information for ensembles and orchestras worldwide. Prepare presenters with the necessary materials (such as sound design packages and synthesizer/sampler design packages with software) as to create a specific production standard when performing the music of John Adams.
Théâtre du Châtelet, June 11-19, 2013
Orchestre du Châtelet and soloists
Alexander Briger, conductor
The Metropolitan Opera, New York, February 2011Directed by Peter Sellars
John Adams, conductor
Gala Opening, 2010 Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, August 2010
James Conlon, conductor
San Francisco Symphony, December 2010 - John Adams, conductor
Grey is the sound designer for John Adam's new opera, A Flowering Tree,which was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and
conducted by John Adams, on May 15, 2009, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(web site)
The piece, directed by Peter Sellars, premiered in New York on Aug. 13, 2009, as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. (web site)
(web site)
Premiered in October 2005 at the San Francisco Opera. Other performances include Netherlands Opera (June 2007), Chicago Lyric Opera (December 2007), and Metropolitan Opera (October 2008, part of the MetHD series). "Purely as an experience in sound, the Met's 'Atomic' was a triumph." ~Alex Ross, The New Yorker \ Full article
"The results are ethereal, arresting and, in the words of General Manager Peter Gelb, 'make the Metropolitan Opera shake as it has never before.'" \ Groundbreaking Sound Design
WondersAreMany.com, The Making of Doctor Atomic
Wonders Are Many is a behind-the-scenes documentary that tells the story of making a grand opera about the atomic bomb.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music as well as three Grammy Awards
Designer of a massive surround sound system including Max/MSP programming for New York Philharmonic premiere of John Adam's "On the Transmigration of Souls" commissioned by the N.Y. Philharmonic in 2002, in memory of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Concert halls have included Avery Fisher Hall (New York City), Royal Albert Hall (London), Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (Sydney, AUS) and the Concertgebow (Amsterdam).
Music by Philip Glass
Performed by Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass and Michael Riesman
Toured worldwide
"It's no surprise that some of Philip Glass's most inspiring projects have been multimedia. The composer's minimalist tendencies lend themselves to the accompaniment of vast landscapes, silent films, and--now--Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic, Dracula. With longstanding collaborators the Kronos Quartet performing the score, Glass has created a soundtrack that moves with rapid-fire momentum and a timeless chamber-music feel. Dracula never sounds sinister or ironic, just ominous--the perfect companion to a film with plenty of dialogue but no pre-existing score." ~Amazon.com
Music by Osvaldo Golijov
Stage Director Peter Sellars
Dawn Upshaw, Kelley O'Connor, Jessica Rivera
Lincoln Center Festival – The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov, 2006
Music by Osvaldo Golijov
Dawn Upshaw and The Andalucian Dogs
Lincoln Center Festival – The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov, 2006
Sound Designer, 2001. Critically acclaimed staged work with director Peter Sellars and soprano Dawn Upshaw, mezzo soprano Lorraine Hunt Liberson and baritone Willard White. Venue locations include Chatelet in Paris (world premiere), San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall in California (American premiere), Lincoln Center in New York City, Barbican Center in London, Australia, Greece, Germany, Italy and Netherlands.
Vocal Recording Engineer for Nonesuch Records, 2001.
Soprano Dawn Upshaw, mezzo soprano Lorraine Hunt Liberson and baritone Willard White.
Recording engineer (1992), Electra/Nonesuch Records,
CD-79311-2.
Sound designer for production, electronic loop engineer at Skywalker Ranch, California. Electra/Nonesuch Records,
CD-79465-2.
Recording (Technical and co-recording engineer). Organized and recorded Avanti! musicians in Helsinki (December 1996), final mix at Skywalker Ranch (June 1997). Electra/Nonesuch Records, CD-79473-2.
Opera Tour (Sound Engineer and Assistant Sound Designer for the opera). Eight month tour included Cal Performances (Berkeley), Festival De Theatre Des Ameriques (Montreal), Lincoln Center (NewYork), Edinburgh Festival (Scotland), Helsinki Festival (Finland), MC93 Bobigny (Paris, France), and Hamburg (Germany).
Co-sound designer and technical engineer for U.S. tour that included the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center (Alice Tully Hall), Chicago Orchestra Hall, Penn State Univ., Williams Center (Easton, PA), and University of Michigan.
(web site)
Work in close contact with many composers, performers and orchestras. Design sound reinforcement systems, install sound systems on location, and mix house sound (FOH) during performances. Recent tour locations have included Austria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Turkey and most states within the U.S. Recent projects include Sound Designer for Dracula, The Music and Film. Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass and Michael Riesman tour/perform the original Philip Glass score to the 1931 film Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi.
(web site)
(web site)
("The music of the spheres," Telegraph UK Article)
(web site)
Working as the only worldwide technical consultant for Boosey & Hawkes. Sound design and synthesizer/sampler design for productions performing Boosey composers, for example: John Adams, Steve Reich, Jacob Druckman, Iannis Xenakis, and Michael Torke. Prepare technical packages, format and program synthesizer/sampler software, and work with presenters to produce respective composers' work. A very few of the production organizations include: Russian National Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival, Lincoln Center/NY Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Sinfonietta, London Symphony Orchestra, Schönberg Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, Present Music Ensemble, Eos Ensemble, Finnish National Orchestra, Nürnberg Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Festival de Radio France, London Royal Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bolkham Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Philharmonic and Chorus (Estonia), and most large symphonic orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.
(Article)
Cast:
Barbara Hendricks
Julia Migenes
Roberta Alexander
Daniel Belcher
Topi Lehtipuu
Omar Ebrahim
Donald Maxwell
Derek Lee Ragin
(web site)
Technical consultant designing and executing large live electronic music environments for performances and recordings. The Paul Dresher Ensemble includes up to eight musicians each with an extensive electronic music workstation environment. Work involves preparing musicians' environments for new works and archiving older compositions. Work with commissioned composers to help design their compositional visions.
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Sound Designer for Show Boat
Nixon in China at The BBC Proms and Berlin Philharmonie
Sound Designer for Alban Berg's Lulu
Sound Designer for John Adams: Nixon in China
Sound Designer for John Adams: El Niño
Sound Designer for John Adams: 
Sound Designer for Ainadamar
El Niño (A Nativity Oratorio)
Ceiling/Sky
Sound Designer and Engineer for Kronos Quartet 
