Mario Grigorov

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Rhymes With Orange

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Released: Jan 1, 1994

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Rhymes With Orange
2:48
173 plays
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Shadowboxer Theme
1:48
168 plays
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Paris To Cuba
3:59
154 plays
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Donna Lee
2:43
96 plays
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Aubade
4:18
89 plays

Total Plays: 776 / Plays Today: 4See All Featured ►

General Info

Genre: Classical / Jazz / Other
Location NEW YORK, New York, US
Profile Views: 1581
Last Login: 6/30/2009
Member Since 8/5/2008
Website www.mariogrigorov.com
Record Label Unsigned
Type of Label Indie
Bio
As a young child, Mario was exposed to many different cultures and musical styles due to his family’s continual relocation; fittingly, this itinerant lifestyle was brought on by his father’s varying opportunities for musical employment. The beginning began at the beginning: Mario was born in Sophia, Bulgaria, in 1963 to the trumpeter and pianist of the Sophia Symphony Orchestra, and began his formal training at the age of 5 as the youngest student ever admitted to the Sophia Conservatorium. A year later, the family moved to Teheran, Iran so that Mario’s father could play in the Shah’s handpicked orchestra. After 4 years in Teheran, the Grigorovs returned to Sophia for 3 years before moving to East Germany, where Mario was first exposed to the music of his peers and the time: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin. According to Grigorov, first hearing that non-classical music “helped [him] to understand the potential for pure improvisation.” Though exposure to popular music with a strong instrumental component had laid the seeds, it took the city of Vienna, Austria to water them: there was simply “so much music happening there. It was very free and open. For the first time I really began rebelling against the strictures of classical music. I was interested in something that expressed more of my own vision.” Finally having extricated his creative sensibilities from the realm of the purely classical, Mario nevertheless maintained a deep respect and appreciation for the music of his structured and schooled childhood, continuing his formal musical education at every step along his journeys at various conservatoriums. ..Australia was the next stop, and it was there that Mario began exploring the “career” side of what it meant to be a musician, starting as a producer, arranger, and programmer for a large variety of Australian jazz and rock groups. Soon thereafter, he began to compose musical scores for television shows, documentaries, and films, and worked quite frequently with the BBC on a series of documentaries. His involvement with film scoring ramping up, Mario moved to Los Angeles under the tutelage of Miles Goodman, a respected fellow film composer. Within three days of arriving in LA, Bob James, an AandR executive with Warner Brothers Records, overheard Mario, deep in a musical trance with a Disklavier piano, accompanying himself on an improvisational journey in a music store. James left with a 5 song on-the-spot demo, and Grigorov inked his first major-label recording contract days later. The result of said inking was Rhymes with Orange, Mario’s debut album of “astonishing improvisations” that bespeaks “a mix of Grigorov’s extensive classical training, the headbanging years [of East Germany], and the Bulgarian and Cyrillic folk music he absorbed as a child in Sophia, Bulgaria.” Rhymes with Orange really is something of a Mariostones, featuring, as it does, the amalgamation of styles and masterful improvisations that most often characterize Mario’s music. After touring in support of Rhymes with Orange in the mid-late ‘90’s, Mario released 1998’s Aria. Another exercise in stylistic crossovers and combinations, Aria combined Mario’s darker, funkier, ambient side with operatic anthems from Carmen, The Magic Flute, Madam Butterfly, and Dido and Aeneas. Aria peaked on Billboard’s Top Classical Crossover chart at 4, beating out a Philip Glass soundtrack, a John Williams Itzhak Perlman collaboration entitled “Cinema Serenade,” and even the London Symphony Orchestra’s reading of Williams’ score for “Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope.” .. ..While no doubt enjoying his notoriety, Mario’s real purpose in coming to the United States had been to further his work scoring films, and he’s done just that: in a continuing career of storied success, Mario has scored countless acclaimed movies, among them Oscar winners and festival darlings; most recently, Lee Daniels’ Sundance (’09) success, Precious. The film, whose cast members include Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, and Mariah Carey, took home the ‘Grand Jury Award’ for best feature film and ‘Audience Choice Award’ at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. At the 1998 Hamptons International Film Festival, Mario was recognized with a ‘Best Original Score’ award for his work on Leonardo Ricagni’s El Chevrolé. Another film he composed music for is Taxi to the Dark Side, which won a 2008 Oscar for Best Documentary. Mario Grigorov is also the founder of Siblings Music, a New York City-based composition and production company started in 2005. .. ..The respect and success Mario has achieved in scoring both films and commercials is due in no small part to his large pool of musical influences, an open mind to new musical influences (and experiences), and a phenomenal ability to turn those influences and experiences into the perfect accompanying soundtrack to any given director’s creative vision.
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