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Peter Mark, conductor...

b i o g r a p h y...........back to roster....up June 2006 Celebrating his 30th anniversary season - his Virginia Opera debut was in 1975 conducting the pilot production of La Traviata with rising star Diana Soviero as Violetta - Artistic Director Peter Mark has presided over Virginia Opera's growth into one of the finest and largest opera companies in the nation. Under his guidance, Virginia Opera has identified and presented some of the nation's most promising young singers – from Jeannine Altmeyer, Ashley Putnam, Frederick Burchinal, John Aler, Rockwell Blake, Randy Locke, and Jake Gardner to Renée Fleming, Barbara Dever, Sujung Kim, Frank Porretta, Grant Youngblood, Fabiana Bravo, Randall Scarlata, Tracie Luck, and Thomas Truhitte. He has brought directors from the theatre and opera world to Virginia including Gian Carlo Menotti, Gordon Davidson, Arvin Brown, Dorothy Danner, Bernard Uzan and Lillian Groag in new productions designed by some of the nation's top opera and theater designers. As conductor, Peter Mark has led more than 90 highly successful Virginia Opera productions and has brought the artistic achievements of Virginia Opera to the international stage, conducting the company's productions and presenting the company’s singers in South America, London, New York, and most recently Shanghai, where he conducted the city’s first Italian-language Tosca – on newly built, Virginia Opera-designed scenery – to open the brand new Opera House of the Oriental Arts Center, China’s first. In celebration of the impact of those performances, and the importance of the occasion, he was featured on the cover of the national Opera News of China. This was accomplished under the auspices of the International Opera Alliance of which he is both general and artistic director. Among Virginia Opera's most recognized productions are four operas by Maestro Mark's wife, distinguished Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave, and the Virginia Premieres of Strauss’ Elektra and Salome, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Tristan & Isolde, and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. Mr. Mark has conducted the British premiere of Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (telecast throughout the United Kingdom by Granada Television); 10 sold-out performances of Porgy and Bess at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (which opened that famed house's 1992 season) and La Bohème for its centennial production at the Torre del Lago Puccini Festival in Italy. He has also conducted for New York City Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria in Canada, and the National Opera of Mexico at the Bellas Artes. Recent Vocal Masterclasses in Beijing and Shanghai led to an offer to conduct Puccini’s Tosca in the new Oriental Performing Arts Center of Shanghai for Shanghai Opera in May/June 2005 with both Chinese and Virginia Opera singers. He is featured as conductor on three commercial recordings of Virginia Opera productions: Mary, Queen of Scots, A Christmas Carol and, most recently, Handel's Julius Caesar. Prior to his career as conductor and impresario, Maestro Mark, who began his musical career as a boy soprano at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, enjoyed a successful career as an orchestral, chamber music, and solo violist. He held leadership positions with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and toured extensively throughout the former Soviet Union, South America, and Great Britain as a soloist. b i o......d i s c o g r a p h y......r e v i e w s.....w e b s i t e back to roster...up . . . .

. r e v i e w s...........back to roster....up click here to read Peter Mark's reviews (MS Word) b i o.......r e v i e w s back to roster...up . . . .