Marcus Norris Bio – Composer
Marcus Norris (b. 1991)
Dr. Marcus Norris’s first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he Macgyvered together from spare parts while lying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert, film, and television music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds.
As a composer for visual media, he recently scored BANDI for Netflix, becoming the top watched non-english show globally on the platform for the week following its release. He won a BMI Film & TV Award for his score for AppleTV’s Lady in the Lake series starring Natalie Portman, which Vulture called “one of the most distinctive scores of the year,” and Black Girl Nerds called it “one of the most uniquely haunting scores I’ve ever heard. It’s soulful and epic.” The Boston Herald praised his “impressively orchestral score” for the 2022 feature film “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” starring Regina Hall & Sterling K. Brown.
Marcus founded South Side Symphony in 2020, which he describes as “like if Quincy Jones grew up on 90s R&B and Rap.” In addition to recording his visual media scores, the ensemble recorded their first live album in 2023 through a weekend of three sold-out shows in North Hollywood. The L.A. Sentinel called the group “a multifaceted creative force. Every note carries the pulse of liberation, joy, and belonging.”
Marcus’s cross-genre mastery resulted in Beyoncé asking him to orchestrate several songs for her and 50-piece orchestra as part of her surprise 2023 Dubai return to live performance. Miss Tina Knowles-Lawson also chose Marcus as Music Director for the 2022 Wearable Art Gala, with Marcus and South Side Symphony performing as the on-stage orchestra accompanying Chloe & Halle Bailey, Andra Day, and more. Marcus will be Music Directing the 2026 Hugo Awards for the World Science Fiction Convention with South Side Symphony, where they will also be presenting their “Anime Juke Jam” production. They frequently perform for the LA Kings, including multiple years of NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Marcus has made a number of achievements in concert music, including earning a commission from the Atlanta Opera as prize for winning their inaugural 96-hour Opera Project, being composer-in-residence for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program 23-24, making his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut in 2022 with his piece “MERCY” as part of the LA Phil’s National Composers Intensive, orchestrating the world premiere of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of “The Factotum” by Will Liverman and DJ King Rico, collaborating on Adrian Dunn’s “Emancipation”, and being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship to earn his PhD in Music Composition at UCLA. His violin concerto “GLORY” opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. His Dance Suite “I Tried So Hard for You” premiered in Havana in 2018, closely following the Russian String Orchestra premiere of “My Idols Are Dead” in Moscow.
For more information on Marcus and his music visit www.MarcusNorris.com (or @MarcusNorris on IG) and www.SouthSideSymphony.org .
Click here to view a list of his compositions.
