Mark Korven

Mark Korven wears many musical hats, from musician, to singer, to songwriter. He made his recording debut in 1984 with the album Passengers. He added a few others to the list over the next decade or so, including a handful of singles and a couple of music videos. He also reached success by writing music scores for both films and television.

Born in Winnipeg, Canada, Mark Korven found an early love for rock music. Even before his teens, he began playing the guitar. By the time he was 17, he was working in local bars with a number of bands. At first he thought that the louder rock music was, the better it was, but tastes change. During those early years, Korven experimented with many kinds of music, from jazz fusion to progressive rock.

In 1977, he decided to take another path, and entered Edmonton's Grant MacEwan College to study music. He took classes in jazz arranging and composition. When he graduated in the early '80s, he went back to working with cover bands as a stand-in guitarist wherever needed. It gave him the chance to try out a number of styles of music, although the pay left something to be desired. Around that same time he began writing some tunes of his own.

In 1984, working under the Rave Records label, Korven completed his debut album, Passengers. In 1987, he moved to a new label, Duke Street, for the album Ordinary Man. That same year he wrote his first music score for a film. The film was I've Heard the Mermaid's Singing. In 1992, he did one more album, This Must Be the Place, but seemed to spend most of his time doing scores for movies like Sam & Me, Joe's Wedding, The Grocer's Wife, and St. Jude. He also did some work for television shows, including The Twilight Zone, Destiny Ridge, Friday the 13th, and Michael Grey Eyes.

During his long career, Korven has won many awards. Besides playing the guitar, he plays the mandolin, keyboards, violin, and bass, as well as some unusual instruments such as the Middle Eastern dumbek drum and the African talking drum.