CARL MARSH
Arranger Composer Orchestrator Conductor
ARRANGER
ORCHESTRATOR
CONDUCTOR
Carl’s arranger tasks include taking raw demos from artists, sometimes stripping them down to their bare essentials of melody and lyrics, then ‘rebuilding’ them into cohesive and expansive musical structures that, while honoring the original melody and lyrics, can take on new lives of their own.
Once a piece is wearing it’s new arrangement, Carl’s task is to metamorph the piece’s original
instrumental character, which might have been only a piano and/or vocal, into whatever ‘beautiful cloak’ the piece will ultimately wear, be it anything from a string quartet to a big band or a full symphonic orchestra. By this process he writes a
fully orchestrated score.
Given the main goal of having a conductor is to convey to the orchestra the essence of the
orchestrated score, who would be better to conduct the piece than the creator of the score itself, who would intimately know its every note and expression? This is why Carl conducts
upwards of 95% of his orchestrations.
Grammy® nominated arranger/composer Carl Marsh has been an integral part of the North American recording industry for over 3 decades. He began his musical career at the age of five on piano, adding bassoon, recorder and guitar by age twelve. By the time he reached the age of twenty he was proficient on over thirty instruments.
Carl’s early influences were eclectic: Blood Sweat and Tears, Charlie Patton, Maurice Ravel, The Beatles and Nat King Cole. He developed his pop abilities by playing in some of the most popular bands in Memphis, Tennessee, where the blues and R&B are staples of everyday life.
Project Highlights
