Marc Irwin Biography
Marc Irwin is a pianist, composer, arranger, and recording artist, who uses his diverse talents as a musician within the fields of modern classical, jazz, world, theater and popular music. Marc Irwin worked on Broadway from 1977-1992, including productions of The Rink, Cats, Romance, Romance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, City of Angels, Sunday in the Park with George, Jerome Robbins' Broadway and Crazy for You. In 1983, Marc Irwin was a musical director for the first production of Mrs. Farmers Daughter, the musical biography of the actress Francis Farmer, directed by Tom O'Horgan and composed by Jack Eric Williams, the originator of the role of Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd. Marc Irwin was musical director for Mr. Williams' cabarets, including Songs and Other Devices, with performances at The Ballroom, Lonestar Café, Reno Sweeney, S.N.A.F.U., The Other End and The Westbank Cafe. Marc Irwin was a sound designer and keyboardist for Harry Belafonte from 1983-1988, with travels in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. Marc Irwin recorded two of Mr. Belafonte's albums, including Paradise In Gazankulu. In the 1980s Marc Irwin teamed up with guitarist Dan Carillo to form Crossings, and released Crossings of the Spirit in 1986 and Child's Play in 1988 for Iris Records. Marc Irwin's compositions for Crossings were Settings, Reflections, Departing, Crossings, Natural Tendencies and A Ray Of Hope. Marc Irwin received his M.M. in composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY in 1992, studying composition with Thea Musgrave, and his DMA in composition from the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University in 2000, studying with Robert Hall Lewis and Vern Falby. Marc Irwin's graduate portfolio included Explorations for Alto Saxophone and Four Percussion and Textural Variations For Orchestra. From 1993-1999 Marc Irwin was a composer and accompanist for the Peabody Children's Chorus and composed over fifty arrangements for children's chorus.
From 1993 to 2003, Marc Irwin was an associate musical director and pianist at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Productions include Words and Music, in 1998 - concert readings that included Where's Charley, Purlie, and Bells Are Ringing - and Merrily We Roll Along in 2002 for the Sondheim Celebration. At the Kennedy Center, Marc Irwin was a pianist for musicals including Dreamgirls, Damn Yankees, Kiss Me Kate, Showboat, Beauty and the Beast, and By Jeeves. Marc Irwin was a pianist with the political satire theatre ensemble, The Capitol Steps, from 1999-2017, with travels across the fifty states. In 2010, Marc Irwin released Handmade Music, with guitarist Barry Heimowitz. This acoustic duo album of improvisation included Marc Irwin's compositions In A Sad Way, Latinoand Sweet Joe. Marc released a solo piano ep in 2013 with Arabesque Recordings, A Few Moments More, which included Evening Song, Ballade, and Serioso. Marc Irwin composed Woodwind Quartet in 2014, Woodwind Quintet in 2016 and String Quartet No 2 in 2020. Marc Irwin's jazz trio, Urbnergy, released two albums, a self-titled album in 2007 and Three Of A Kind in 2011. Marc Irwin's compositions for these releases were A For Effort, Double Down, A Long Way Home, Fesh Bop and Unnatural Tendencies. Marc composed music for the Baltimore based Vagabond Players' productions of Artby Yasmina Reza in 2014 and David Kramer's The Normal Heart in 2016. In 2017 Marc Irwin began his affiliation with The Classic Theatre of Maryland, composing music for original productions of The Glass Menagerie, Treasure Island, Our Town, A Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and Pride and Prejudice. In 2011, Marc Irwin began working with Baltimore's Daniel Schwait, releasing the albums Blame It On My Youth in 2016, Piano Songs, in 2017 and singles It All Fades Away and Good Thing Going/Don't Think Twice in 2019.
In 2014 Marc formed his current ensemble, MIQ, the Marc Irwin Quintet. The group's first self-titled release was in 2019. Marc's compositions include Contemplation, Sad But True and Double Down as well as original arrangements of Baubles, Bangles and Beads, How Long Has This Been Going On, and Bernie's Tune. During the recent pandemic, the group continued with isolated recordings of Charlie Parker's Au Privave, Marc Irwin's original Pandemonium 20, and Billie Holiday's A Child Is Born. In 2020 Marc Irwin began curating Member Composer concerts for The Musicians Club of New York, with performances of his Woodwind Quartet in 2023, Fantasy For Clarinet And Piano in 2024 and Piano Trioin 2025. In 2022, Marc Irwin accepted a position as Music Director of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, in MD. Responsibilities include curating the Music and Meaning concert series, with an emphasis on modern classical music. As part of this concert series, Marc Irwin's String Quartet No 2 was premiered in 2023 by the Bergamot Quartet and in 2025 MIQ's featured performance including works from their latest release, Echoes of Hope.