top of page
Mark Narins, Composer in Residence/Associate Conductor

After first pursuing a career as a conductor, Mark Narins began composing in the 1990s. His early works were inspired by inscriptions found on tombstones in the Hebrew graveyard of Graz, Austria . Selma Weiss-Dramatic Lament for Baritone was the first composition from this source. This was followed soon afterwards by the full length opera Theresa Kren (2008-2012) about a mother’s partially successful attempt to resurrect her daughter from the grave on the day of the daughter’s tombstone unveiling.  Subsequently Mr. Narins got his first exposure as a symphonic composer with the Kensington Symphony in the 2008 season conducting his “Suite from the opera Theresa Kren” (2008).  The orchestra has also performed Entrance of the Rabbi Shlomo ben Zion (2009) and The Ball Game (2012) with soloist, chorus and orchestra, both from Theresa Kren.

Mr. Narins’ first orchestral tone poem Evocation (2012) was performed in 2012.  In 2013 Mr. Narins composed a work especially for Kensington’s co-principal oboe/English horn called Three Moods for English Horn and Orchestra which will be featured in an upcoming season. This work is based on such diverse sources as Arnold Böcklin’s The Isle of the Dead and 1940’s Latin dance band music. The final concert of the 2015 - ’16 KSO season featured the world premiere performance of selections from Mr. Narins’ Symphony No. 1 which he dedicated to the KSO and its Music Director Geoffrey Gallegos. The Symphony enjoyed an enthusiastic and supportive response from the audience in attendance at that premiere.  In June 2013, his first work for concert band The Golden Finde-Drake at Pt. Reyes was performed by The Daly City All Stars.  The revised version was performed in March 2014 by the San Francisco State Wind Ensemble conducted by Martin Seggelke.  Mr. Narins’ works for piano, Romp in f minor (2010) and Variations and Fugue (2012) were  performed by the noted Canadian Pianist Marion Miller in London, Ontario.  Mr. Narins is also an accomplished conductor, operatic tenor and trombonist. He studied at the Mannes School of Music, Eastman School of Music and the University of Arizona. His musical roots come from his mother who studied piano at the Julliard School of  Music with Olga Samaroff.  She later went on to work for Walter and Arturo Toscanini at the NBC Symphony.

​

bottom of page