Teaching Statement
One of my greatest pleasures in life is to help anyone of any age to surpass their own expectations of themselves in some arena, and this comes about through a blend of passion, respect, fun, dedication, energy and love; and the belief that our potential is limitless.
Education
Mark was privileged to study with some of the great musicians and pedagogues of the past century: violin with Masao Kawasaki, Dorothy DeLay and Ithzak Perlman; and chamber music with the Juilliard, Emerson and American Quartets, with Eugene Lehner of the Kolisch Quartet, and Zoltan Zekely of the Hungarian Quartet. His primary conducting mentors were Kenneth Kiesler and Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Larry Rachlef, and Helmuth Rilling. Mark received his musical training at the Guildhall School (London), the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, Brooklyn College Conservatory, and the University of Michigan, where he earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting.
Teaching/Performance Bio
As a violinist Mark was a member of the Canada’s Atlantic String Quartet for 6 years. He now is a member of the Aryaloka String Quartet and appears with Emmanuel Music in Boston, the New England Bach Festival and the Springfield Symphony. He is a member ‘in absentia’ of the Canadian contemporary improv ensemble The Black Auks, with whom he made several recordings. He has served as music director of several orchestras in Canada, Michigan and New England. He conducted the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in Santa Cruz, CA, and the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, as well as those of MIT, the New Hampshire Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra at Concord Academy. Recently he directed the premieres of a trilogy of operas in Boston and New Hampshire. He has given numerous world premieres and his own works have been performed in the US, Canada and the UK including at New York’s 92nd St. Y.
Holding a deep belief that music is a broad and powerful educational and social medium for both children and adults, Mark has conducted several youth and community orchestras. Last season included directing the All City Orchestra in Salem, Oregon, conducting the Broadway show Mary Poppins, in Chelmsford, MA, and giving the premiere of a new Requiem by the Vermont composer Robert Griffin. In the summers he conducts and coaches at CAMMAC in Quebec, and at the Iceberg Chamber Music Institute in Newfoundland. This past August he was invited to teach composition and general music at MusicWorks in the UK, a chamber music program for some of Europe’s finest young string and piano players.
Now in his sixth season as Music Director of the New Hampshire Philharmonic Mark continues to direct the University Orchestra at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, where he is adjunct professor of conducting, violin and viola.