Marko Bajzer is a Croatian-American composer, visual artist, bassoonist, wilderness guide, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

Bajzer has written for a variety of media, including orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber music, voice, and electronics. His commissions include the Reno Philharmonic and the North State Symphony, with other works performed by the Travis Air Force Band of the Golden West, Blue Lake Festival Orchestra, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Wind Ensemble, the CCM Brass Choir, the CCM Chamber Players, San Francisco Choral Artists, Yerba Buena Brass Quintet, Splinter Reeds Quintet, Blue Lake Festival Band, and others.

Bajzer’s current large-scale project is From Sea to Shining Sea; a Musical Journey through America’s National Parks, a series of pieces depicting scenes from national parks across the United States. He was the Artist-in-Residence at Lassen Volcanic National Park in 2022 and wrote Lassen Awakes, which was performed by the North State Symphony in 2023. He was the 2023 Artist-in-Residence at Great Basin National Park, which will result in a performance by the Reno Philharmonic on March 22/23, 2025 of a piece entitled The Sacrifice of Prometheus. His 2024 residencies included Joshua Tree and Voyageurs National Parks, and works about those parks will premiere in 2025 and 2026. 

Bajzer earned his Bachelor of Music in music composition from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, He obtained his Master of Music degree in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His primary teachers include Mason Bates, Dan Becker, Douglas Knehans, and Joel Hoffman, with additional studies with Samuel Adler, Derek Bermel, Ellen Harrison, Michael Fiday, and David