Mark has been a member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra cello section since 2016 and was appointed Assistant Principal Cello in September 2018. As an Orchestral musician he performs frequently with Madison Opera and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and has been a guest at Lakes Area Music Festival and Arizona MusicFest. Mark is passionately involved in advocating for colleagues as chair of the Madison Symphony Players Committee and has been the orchestra’s delegate for ROPA(Regional Orchestra Players Association)
As a chamber musician, Mark has worked and performed with principal musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Muir, Pro Arte, Borodin and Brentano String Quartets. He is a core member of Madison's acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players, has performed frequently at John and Rosemary Harbison’s Token Creek Festival since 2016, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre(2008, 2014) and Brush Creek(2016). Mark is a member of ambient duo High Plains along with composer Scott Morgan.
A native of the Boston area, Mark received his bachelors degree in cello performance from Boston University where he studied cello with David Soyer and Leslie Parnas. He received a Masters degree and Orchestral Studies Diploma from the Eastman School of Music studying with Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliot and served as an orchestral fellow and member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Mark holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied with Uri Vardi. Other major teachers include Deborah Thompson and Emmanuel Feldman.
Mark is passionate about teaching and has been running a diverse private studio in Madison, since 2010. Mark’s private students have been principals in WYSO orchestras as well as the WSMA State Honors Orchestra and Mark has been an enthusiastic chamber music and occasional sectional coach for the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras for over ten years. At the collegiate level, Mark has taught cello at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.