Mark Governor
Mark Governor is an acclaimed composer and lyricist with twenty feature films and over 200 television series, specials and documentaries to his credit. Mark is also a sought after record and concert producer, recording artist, and arranger who has worked with Grammy-wining artists in nearly all genres of music. His rock musical “shAme” is currently in development for Broadway.
SONGWRITING AND PRODUCING
As a songwriter and record producer, Mark has worked with many artists including Grant Lee Phillips, Lolo, Kristian Bush (Sugarland), D. J. Bonebreak (X), Carmen Rizzo, Huun Huur Tu, Concrete Blonde, Jade Jackson, Katrina Lenk, James Snyder, David Rea, and Billy Preston. He created and produced the Hollywood concert series Under The Influence, as well as Notes From The Edge, which featured contemporary string arrangements of pop songs performed with singers. Mark was the Music Director of the 2016 Huun Huur Tu – Carmen Rizzo “Eternal” tour of Russia and World Music Festivals and venues in the US, arranging and conducting the live string ensembles.
MOVIES
In cinema, Mark has twenty feature films to his credit, including “Pet Sematary 2”, “Notes From Underground”, a collaboration with Iggy Pop on “The Brave” (directed by Johnny Depp) and the DVD Special Editions of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogies. Mark composed and conducted a new original score for the 1927 silent film, “The Unknown”, which premiered in live performance as the opening event of the 2017 Carmel International Film Festival.
TV
Mark has composed and conducted original scores for a variety of television documentaries and variety specials. His original songs have been included in the soundtracks of popular TV shows, performed by artists and bands he has produced as well as his own performances. His song “Stadium Rave” from Spongebob Squarepants episode “Jellyfish Jam” has become one of the most popular and recognizable memes on the internet, used not only on YouTube, but Instagram and TikTok and even in the video game Guitar Hero. Nods to the meme in pop culture have used Stadium Rave in commercials and TV shows. It has been sampled in hip hop tracks, and many cover versions. To date, it has ben used thousands of times, has millions of listens and views, and remains popular to this day. In fact in 2022, Sony Playstation released a game developed around the song and the meme.
THEATER
Mark’s rock musical “shAme” is in development for a Broadway production, and has had multiple presentations in NYC in 2020-2022. Earlier versions of the show as a rock opera have been produced in Los Angeles, Boston and Berlin. Mark was also the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Los Angeles Rock Opera Company and is the co-composer and lyricist of the world music opera “Possession”.. He adapted and arranged Pete Townshendʼs A Quick One While Heʼs Away for stage performance and video and has several new music theater works in development. In 2021, Mark was the Music Producer for the virtual Broadway revival of Amour by Michelle LeGrand and Jeremy Sams.