Violinist, composer, dreamer Hugh Marsh was born in Montreal,Canada on June 5th,1955.He is widely regarded as Canada's leading improvising violinist.Marsh's openness and chameleon like versatility has allowed him to transcend many different musical genres as is evidenced in the diverse talents he has performed or recorded with.(see sidebar) Marsh studied classical violin from age 5 until 20, however it was picking up the saxophone in high school that led him to exploring other music's, especially jazz,funk and r&b.

It was Marsh's father who suggested he apply his newfound love of improvisation on the saxophone to the violin and one day Hugh returned home from school to discover a Balilla amp and a DeArmond pickup for his violin in the living room.A wah wah pedal soon followed and Marsh's interest in sound processing was born.

In 1977 Marsh and longtime friend drummer Kevan Mckenzie made the move from Ottawa to Toronto. During this first sojourn Hugh had the opportunity to play with many of the Canadian jazz musicians whose work he had long admired including Moe Koffman,Don Thompson, Doug Riley,Claude Ranger and Sonny Greenwich.

While visiting his parents at Christmas 1979 Marsh performed at a benefit for the Children's Hospital in Ottawa with guitarist Roddy Elias and was introduced to singer songwriter Bruce Cockburn who was performing at the same event.This fortuitous meeting resulted in numerous recordings and world tours with Bruce over the years.

As for recent live performances, Marsh toured with Goth icon Peter Murphy in 2000 and 2002, has been an ongoing member of Turkish Dj Mercan Dede's Secret Tribe project,one quarter of "Nick Buzz"along with Martin Tielli,Jonathan Goldsmith,Rob Piltch,and most recently joined clarinet visionary Don Byron's new quartet "Swiftboat"which includes Kermit Driscoll and Pheeroan Aklaff. Hugh is about to release his third solo recording entitled"Hug Mars",which features poet Ursula Rucker,James Blood Ulmer,Tanya Tagaq Gillis, Kokayi,Gregoire Maret,Andy Milne,Dafnis Prieto,Pancho Quinto and Pedro Martinez among others.