Marc Capelle is a San
Francisco native. His
parents—his mother a
librarian and his father a
welder in the shipyards and
for the SF MUNI—both came to
San Francisco in the 1940s.
Marc was raised in a
Bohemian household, and his
childhood was filled with
music, literature and art.
His first professional
performance was in San
Francisco at the age of
eight, when he played
Dixieland cornet at Pier 23
with the house band.
Attending San Francisco
public schools, during the
summers he participated in
the SF Symphony's Music
Workshop. After graduating
from J Eugene McAteer High
School in 1979, he attended
Columbia University in NYC,
where he earned a BA in
English Literature, played
at CBGB's and the Mudd Club,
produced a weekly television
show, Fiestavision,
and promoted over twenty
concerts.
In 1985, Capelle returned to
San Francisco and settled in
the Mission district. During
that time he began playing
piano, organ, and trumpet
with the West Coast
Spiritual Corinthians, a
gospel music group with
roots in the Bayview and the
East Bay. Capelle went on to
perform with the Corinthians
for 12 years, recording
three albums with them and
playing hundreds of church,
festival and club dates.
In the mid-1990s, he began
performing with bands
outside of the gospel
circuit. Since then he has
written, arranged, performed
and recorded—on an array of
instruments that include
piano, trumpet, flugelhorn,
euphonium, Moog synthesiser,
and Hammond and Wurlitzer
organs—with American Music
Club, Third Eye Blind, Cake,
the Loved Ones, the
Kinetics, Grandaddy, Los
Mocosos, Tommy Guerrero,
John Doe, Virgil Shaw, Mark
Eitzel, Chuck Prophet and a
host of others. Recently,
his newly formed all-star
deep soul band, Marc and the
Casuals, has been prompting
spontaneous dance parties at
clubs throughout the
Mission.
Marc also founded a music
production company, Tarmac
Music, which he still runs
today with his partner Monte
Vallier. Tarmac has provided
music for television, radio,
and films, and its clients
include Macy's, Adobe, Wild
Planet Toys, Odwalla, HBO/Cinemax,
The Food Network, Grey
Advertising, InCa
Productions, and
Hoffman/Lewis. Marc has also
recently furnished scores
for the television programs
John Cleese's Wine for
The Confused and One
Bite of the Apple, as
well as additional music for
the HBO/Cinemax documentary
Paternal Instincts.
An active patron of and
participant in the San
Francisco art scene, Capelle
has helped to produce,
compose, and arrange music
for a variety of events
including the San Francisco
Film Festival, Zoetrope: All
Story Magazine, Gallery 16,
the Theater Artaud, and
Litquake. He is a member of
the San Francisco Film
Society advisory board and
the San Francisco
Appreciation Society, and is
the musical director and
piano player for San
Francisco's acclaimed
monthly storytelling series,
PorchLight. He is currently
composing, and will perform,
new music for a program of
live music and modern
animated shorts as part of
the 50th San Francisco
International Film Festival.
He lives in the Mission with
his son Evan and wife Sara
Murphy, the director of
Worklink, a not-for-profit
agency that provides
employment services to
people with physical and
developmental disabilities.
