Meet Marcus Grant | Professional Musician, Teacher, and Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marcus Grant and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcus, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I was extremely shy as a child, but by the time I became a teenager, being a musician had already offered me dozens of life-changing opportunities. When I was in elementary school, I joined the Richmond Boys Choir. The opportunities afforded to me while in that group helped shape who I am today. My choir experience led me to a memorable and cherishable few years as an actor in the theater where I learned to better express myself. Music is also one of the most significant vehicles responsible for helping me to fully process my emotions, which served as one of the final key elements towards helping me to fully come out of my shell. Once I entered high school, I realized that when I opened myself up enough to share my passion for the arts with others, it created a positive impact on those I cared about around me. I was 16 years old when I fully understood that I wanted to pursue that passion forever so that I could continue to have the opportunity to create that positive impact.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m most excited about being able to facilitate a diversified career that doesn’t simply focus on one subset within a single niche. I’m a firm believer that developing one skill expands your capacity and potential in all related skills. For example: the further I grow as a performer, the more equipped I am to send my students along similar paths. The more I work with students, the more informed I become of their desires and strengths when I compose music involving their age group. The more involved I am as a social media content creator, the larger the platform I have to use my performing skills to connect with those who can be touched by my music, and – more importantly – the music of my colleagues. I strive every day to further develop my knowledge and expand my skill set, and – each time I do – it further informs my perspective on previously-developed skills and how I can use them to serve others.

Getting to where I currently am professionally was far from easy. Although I had already been involved in music beforehand, my trumpet career started in middle school when I was 11. My family went through challenges that made it difficult to get me a brand new instrument when I first started out, but because I really wanted to play, my parents made sure I had an instrument in my hand. Throughout public school, I played on a beaten and bruised trumpet that had been sitting at a pawn shop and was sold to us at a very low price. It was not manufactured the way standard trumpets are, so repairing its many flaws was difficult. I recall cutting and wrapping bounty paper towels around my valves each week where the valve cork was supposed to be because we could not find corks that would fit on the instrument the way it had been designed. The water keys also had to be plugged in a similar way because they didn’t fully cover their holes, causing significant air leaks whenever playing the instrument. Despite the challenges, I loved the instrument and did everything I could to progress. When I met VCU’s Trumpet Professor Rex Richardson at the college’s open house – and Rex met my parents – they determined together that I showed a lot of promise if I majored in music school like I had wanted, despite my many roadblocks. Knowing this, my parents drove me 2 hours to an instrument warehouse by Rex’s recommendation – where I tried out many different trumpets – and they invested in a brand new trumpet for me (one that was out of their budget!) for my 18th birthday, putting their faith in me that I would put it to good use.

The biggest lesson I learned through my growth as a musician and person is that if you are genuine around others about who you are, where your passions lie, and what makes you come alive, the right people will find you who are willing to invest in helping you live those passions and dreams. It can be easy to focus on the seemingly-infinite obstacles that come our way, but being able to pinpoint where and from whom your support comes is a powerful and necessary skill to exercise. If there’s anything I want the world to know about my brand and story, it’s that my brand stands as proof that you can accomplish your dreams no matter where you come from or what obstacles stand in front of you, and your hard work will be amplified exponentially if you seek a community – no matter how small – that is willing to support the pursuit of your goals.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As my best friend knows, I am an absolute introvert and would not be likely to take them anywhere at all! The best experiences in my life have happened because I shared them with those people I cared about, and as a result, the destination itself is less important to me than the company. That being said, most of my favorite places have sentimental value to me or are attached to fond memories, and they often include opportunities to share stories together and enjoy some solitude. We would likely visit the places we spent the most time together – catching music performances at our college alma mater, for example – but the most likely itinerary would consist of staying home watching youtube videos, playing video games, taking walks around the local neighborhood, playing duets together, and lots of cooking.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout is dedicated to Rex Richardson. Rex believed in me from the first day he met me, including the days when I didn’t believe in myself. I was passionate about music but far from accomplished as a trumpet player the first day we met. Knowing I was driven by my passion, Rex never withheld useful criticism from me just to save my ego because he knew I wanted the feedback; he was always real with me about what I needed in order to achieve my goals, and he went out of his way to seek out the assets and resources I needed to reach my full potential. Rex has fought battles on my behalf behind the scenes and continues to be there to support me even to this day. He was also instrumental in showing me when I needed to be human and to give myself grace in the midst of coming up short of my own expectations. Rex is responsible for placing me in environments that connected me to most of the professional trumpet colleagues I have today, and when I auditioned for Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University for grad school, he took it upon himself to introduce me via email to the professors there, so that they already had a positive view of me and were anticipating my arrival.

My parents also deserve credit; they are not professional musicians and had no idea how I would make a living as one, but they fully trusted in me to do it and never stopped supporting me. I’m incredibly lucky and fortunate to have a tightly-knit family, and we have always supported one another; there have been many times in life where I have needed that support.

Website: https://www.msgrantmusic.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msgrantmusic/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/msgrantmusic

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@msgrantmusic