Ep:19 Marc Capelle & The Mission
Marc Capelle & The Mission
This week Susan and Michaela sit down with native San Franciscan Marc Capelle to talk about his artistic career and the city’s sunny Mission District. A musician, composer, producer, educator and entertainer, Capelle has performed with the American Music Club, Tommy Guerrero and The West Coast Spiritual Corinthians for decades. He’s even had guest performances with artists like The Plastic Ono Band, Rodriguez, Grandaddy, and Kelley Stoltz. Capelle founded SFO’s live music program “ You Are Hear,” and remained the programmer and producer of it for nine years. Likewise, Capelle is the founder and musical director of the Red Room Orchestra and the soul and pop dance ensemble Marc & the Casuals. He studied at Columbia College at Columbia University, and since returning to his home city, Capelle has taken advantage of the deep concentration of arts and music that the city offers. Such concentration of the arts can be found in Capelle’s own neighborhood, The Mission. In the mid 20th Century, artists and musicians flocked to The Mission to find affordable housing, thus spawning an explosion of creativity that spilled out of every bar and restaurant. Its cultural history fueled the district’s colorful character, first by its inhabitance of the city’s Native American population, to the Irish, and now to the cherished Latinx community. Today, not only is the neighborhood dominated by an abundance of the arts, but the food, music, and culture has a vibrant Mexican and Latinx flare. There was even a time when Spanish could be heard more than English on the neighborhood’s streets.
The Mission has had its fair share of challenges, such as increased gang violence in the 80’s and rising costs from the growing tech industry of the last 20 years. Nevertheless, it maintains its lively artistic spirit, and who better to tell its story than Mission musician Marc Capelle, who can be found making music on The Mission’s streets or at various venues like The Chapel on Valencia St.Check out Capelle’s compositions and sound design in the Bay Area art scene documentary “Tell Them We Were Here,” or read more about him on the local news website Mission Local: https://missionlocal.org/2021/06/people-we-meet-a-san-francisco-musician-who-never-left/
Meet Marc Capelle!
