Born and raised on a farm in Delaware (where his musical instincts emerged early and his green thumb did not), Mark began piano lessons at age five. A classical foundation in Bach, Beethoven, and Debussy expanded into a lifelong obsession with performance—and a deep love of rock, blues, jazz, R&B, roots, funk, and the Great American Songbook. Across stage, screen, and classroom, his work is driven by a belief in music as a visceral, emotional, and essential force in collaborative storytelling.
Mark has served as Musical Director for Rent (regional premiere), The Who’s Tommy, Company, Cabaret, Fame (Macao), Pippin, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, All Shook Up, Hello Again, Elegies, Our Town (75th Anniversary), and many others. He has appeared in concert with artists including Darlene Love, Andrea Burns, Jerry Herman, and Mary Birdsong,
and has arranged and supervised benefit concerts for organizations such as The Actors Fund/Equity Fights AIDS, Live & In Color, Winter Clothing Closet,
Stella by Starlight, and the Hole in the Wall Gang.
He is Arranger and Music Supervisor for Little Girl Blue: The Nina Simone Musical.
Its extended Off-Broadway run earned multiple Lortel and Audelco nominations,
including Best Musical Direction. A Broadway run is planned for 2027.
A longtime vocal coach to hundreds of actors and recording artists,
Mark’s pop/rock transcriptions are widely used in audition and repertory books nationwide.
He has scored and orchestrated projects with Comedy Central and Netflix, among others.
Since 2012, he has served as Vocal Director for Carnival Entertainment.
Mark was adjunct faculty at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and a co-founder of its Musical Theatre Intensive program. He has previously taught at Pace University and Jacksonville State University, where he also served as Director of Athletic Bands, and has arranged for numerous high school, college, and drum & bugle corps programs, including the Spirit of Atlanta.
He holds a BA in Film (Penn State), a Master of Music Education (Jacksonville State University), and a Certificate in Film Scoring (UCLA Extension),
and has been based in New York City since 2004.