Named 2011 Composer of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association (as well as the Nashville Area Music Teachers Association), Mark Volker is the Coordinator of Composition and Assistant Professor of Music at the Belmont University School of Music, where he teaches applied composition and music theory. Known for his colorful harmonic language and orchestration, as well as his facility with both electronic and traditional instrumentations, Mark’s music has been performed and recorded by numerous performers around the world, including the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players, eighth blackbird, the Pacifica String Quartet, Musica moderna Poland, the Pinotage ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Gryphon Trio, the Kiev Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, So Percussion, Luna Nova, the Orquesta de Baja California, the Boston Brass, the Society for New Music, the Cold Fusion Ensemble, the Young Opera Company of New England, and the Nashville Ballet. His music has also been featured at many music festivals and conferences, including Music97, 99, 2001, the Gamper Festival, SCI regional and national conferences, June in Buffalo, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Chenango Summer MusicFest, the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, ICMC, and SEAMUS. He has received awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, SCI, and ERMmedia. Mark’s music can be heard on his recently released Centaur Records CD, Elemental Forces, as well as on volume 3 of ERMmedia’s Masterworks of the New Era series. Mark's acclaimed ballet based on The Diary of Anne Frank is currently being performed by members of the Nashville Ballet in schools around Middle Tennessee as well as other venues.
Mark is also an active classical guitarist, specializing in the performance of new music for classical guitar in chamber settings. He has premiered numerous chamber and solo works and performs regularly in a duo with New York City Opera flutist John McMurtery.
A native of Buffalo, NY, Mark holds degrees from the Ithaca College School of Music (BM), the Cincnnati College-Conservatory of Music (MM), and the University of Chicago (PhD). He has studied composition with Greg Woodward, Dana Wilson, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Darrell Handel, Shulamit Ran, Samuel Adler, and Marta Ptaszynska, electroacoustic music with Howard Sandroff and Mara Helmuth, and classical guitar with Pablo Cohen, Edward Flower, Fred Hand, and John Sawers. Prior to his appointment at Belmont, Mark taught at Colgate University. He now lives in Franklin, TN with his wife Alyssa and two children, Molly and Jacob.
Contact: (615) 460-8206 or mark.volker@belmont.edu
