Richard Marriot
Composer
Richard Marriott has been active as a composer, performer, producer and instrument builder for over thirty years. He has composed extensively for film, television, dance, theater, opera, installations and video games, encompassing a wide range of styles.
​
He is the founder and artistic director of the Club Foot Orchestra, the premiere ensemble for live music performance with silent films. The Orchestra has a repertoire of 16 feature-length scores, all of which were composed by Marriott or in collaboration with other orchestra members, and has performed these scores extensively, at venues such as Lincoln Center, BAM, SFJAZZ, Rubin Museum, Morgan Library, and the Smithsonian Institution. The core instrumentation of three woodwinds, two brass, violin, contrabass, electric guitar and percussion is often augmented by forces as diverse as string quartet and Balinese Gamelan.
His operas include DIVIDE LIGHT, in collaboration with visual artist Lesley Dill, with text drawn from the poetry of Emily Dickinson. DIVIDE LIGHT premiered at the Montalvo Art Center in 2008 with The Choral Project and Del Sol String Quartet and is receiving a new production at Dixon Place, New York NY in April 2018. VOYAGE premiered at the San Francisco International Art Festival in June 2017, featuring Balinese virtuoso Made Subandi and American experimental vocalist Pamela Z. THE PASSION OF LEYLA, a chamber opera with a libretto by Ruth Margraff, was workshopped by the San Jose Stage Company in August, 2016. He has collaborated with Overtone Industries on two musical theater projects, SONGS & DANCES OF IMAGINARY LANDS which premiered in Culver City CA in June 2010, and STRING OF PEARLS which has had theatrical runs in Los Angeles and New York. GODMACHINE premiered at CSU Hayward in June 2002 and featured interactive electronics.
​
Marriott has written six scores for choreographer Della Davidson and has also composed scores for New York choreographers Yoshiko Chuma and Yin Mei. In March 2017, he wrote music for Sara Shelton Mann's INVITATION at ODC Theater (San Francisco)
​
Concert Compositions include Metropolis Concerto for Violin and Wind Ensemble, which was premiered by soloist Alisa Rose and the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble with Matthew Marsit conducting in February 2015. Upcoming projects include a Concerto for Bass and Orchestra to be performed by bassist Gary Karr and the Gonzaga University Orchestra in April 2018 and the Ghost Ship Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, to be performed by Oakland Symphony in February 2019.
​
Other credits include music for the Hollywood feature RISING SUN, the Academy Award nominee SILVER INTO GOLD and the CBS animated series THE TWISTED TALES OF FELIX THE CAT.
​
Marriott was employed as a composer at Atari Games from 1992-1997 and worked at Serge Modular Music Systems 1980-82. In 1981 he invented the voltage-controlled Casio which has been used by musicians such as The Residents, Throbbing Gristle, and Captain Beefheart.
​
Marriott is a performer on wind instruments and is an avid enthusiast of international marching ensembles. He also designs and constructs electronic instruments which he uses in performance.