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Mark Markham

Pianist Mark Markham has been praised by critics as “an extraordinary musician.” His playing has been described as “dazzling, lovingly detailed, and spellbinding.”

As a soloist he has played recitals in New York City at Weill Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library as a result of winning First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the 1988 Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition in New York. He has also performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New Orleans.

From 1987-1992 Mark Markham was the pianist for the Contemporary Music Forum—a new music ensemble at the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. It was with this group that he gave the premiere performances of several compositions including the Washington premiere of Verticals for piano solo by Shulamit Ran. He has also been a guest artist with the Festival Chamber Players and the Women Composers’ Orchestra in Baltimore.

As a pianist for singers, he was praised by one critic as “possibly the next Gerald Moore.” He began to play for singers at the age of nine and at nineteen was the musical director of Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue at Florida State University. Also that year he was a vocal coach for Boris Goldovsky at the Oglebay Opera Institute. Over the past decade he has toured the United States with soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and soon will record with her a CD of music by Messiaen, Dallapiccola, Charles Wuorinen, and Elliot Carter. In 1992 at Alice Tully Hall, he won the prize for best pianist at the Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition.

In addition to his performing career, Markham is a vocal coach, a piano instructor, and a lecturer. He is on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and Morgan State University and has been a vocal coach at the Britten-Pears School in England. As a lecturer, he has represented the Johns Hopkins University at alumni meetings throughout the United States, and next season will mark his third year as a guest lecturer for the Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City.

Highlights of his 93-94 season include “Die Schone Mullerin” with tenor Jeffrey Fahnestock at the Walters Art Gallery; a lecture entitled “The Verdian Singer” for the Metropolitan Opera; and several recitals with countertenor Derek Lee Ragin. Next season he will play a solo recital for the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Other recitals will be in Houston and New York with Phyllis Bryn-Julson and in Washington, D.C. at the Terrace Theatre, in Chicago, and in Vienna with Derek Lee Ragin.

Mark Markham is a native of Pensacola, Florida where he studied with Robert and Trudie Sherwood. He received the Bachelor, Masters, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Peabody Conservatory where he was a pupil of Ann Schein.

Concerts

Saturday, April 30, 1994