Artist Spotlight - Marc LeGrand
Nicaraguan-American Marc Anthony LeGrand is a New York City-based guitarist, composer, theorist, and producer whose work and collaborations blur the lines of composed and improvised music. Early on, Marc was drawn to the abstract expression of instrumental music through his relationships with Patricia Thúmas, Dr. John Calloway, and Jose Chepito Areas. These three mentors guided Marc through his early explorations of the Bebop and Afro-Cuban traditions.
As a teenager, Marc delved into modern jazz harmony and classical technique—inspired by his summers at the Stanford Jazz Institute as well as his participation in the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco. By the time he graduated high school, Marc had drawn more attention within the San Francisco Latin Jazz music community for his prodigious guitar and compositional abilities—sitting in and performing regularly with some of the most admired Jazz and Latin jazz collaborators in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the years leading up to his relocation to New York City, Marc gave performances at the KCSM Jazz Festival, San Francisco Carnaval Salsa Festival, Stanford Jazz Festival, Redwood City Summer Concert Series, Delta Jazz Festival, Santa Rosa Salsa & Latin Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, Yoshi's SF, San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival, and Stanford Park's Artist Residency Series for which he collectively received awards and recognition for his work as a guitarist, composer, and improviser.
Marc now holds a B.M. in Guitar Performance (focuses in Composition and Improvisation) from the Greatbatch School of Music (where he received a performance scholarship to attend). In 2023, Marc became a finalist in the Global Music Awards—an international competition in which he was awarded two medals (in the categories of Instrumentalist and Emerging Artist) for his live performance of his original composition, titled “Gallo Pinto”. Today, he is involved in a variety of performance, composition, and production-based collaborations. Between projects, Marc can be found conducting private lessons from his apartment in the Lower East Side.
As an artist, Marc challenges the listener’s relationship with consonance and dissonance. In doing so, it is his aim to uncover an ever-widening aural palette, to journey with the listener between the visceral and ethereal, and to foster a globally conscious harmonic experience.
Marc is currently recording and performing with this Aviator Cub.
You can keep up with him on Instagram.