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Bios
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Born on the Battle of Bunker Hill Day (June 17th) in 1981 Mark was raised in the small town of Bloomfield, New York. For those of you not from New York, Bloomfield is nowhere even close to New York City. It’s like a seven-hour drive away. So don’t ask him what it was like to grow up in New York and expect some humorous anecdote about traffic, the subway system, taxi drivers, or elevators. With a music teacher for a father and an organist and Throughout high school Mark continued his studies on trumpet with teachers David Bills and Scott Parker. Playing in the high school jazz band got Mark interested in that genre and he was soon collaborating with keyboardist Sean Smith and an assortment of drummers in the jazz combo Avogadro and The Moles. It was also during these high school years that he began to teach himself guitar. Following high school, Mark headed to The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam to work on a degree in Music Education. While earning his Bachelor of Music, Mark got sick of just taking music classes and decided to get a Bachelor of Arts in History to break up the monotony. While attending Potsdam Mark immensely enjoyed living on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains and he spent much of his free time hiking, camping, and fishing throughout the Northcountry. Being exposed to the mountain culture rekindled the interest in Folk and Bluegrass music that Mark had developed in fourth grade. Wishing to combine his love of folkmusic, history, and cultural studies, Mark moved from the mountains to the flattest place on earth, Bowling Green, Ohio, in order to pursue aMaster’s degree in Ethnomusicology. Shortly after arriving in Bowling Green Mark began to play music on open micnights with composers Douglas Bielmeier, Matthew McCabe, and Steven Kemper (among others) under the name Norton and The Anthologies. Seeking a more serious project Mark began playing with Chad and soon after The Student Loan was formed. Mark’s research interests have branched out and he has written about class and music, as well as extensive research on karaoke music, which he considers the folk music of the twenty-first century. He has also traveled to Ghana where he studied Gyil (a type of West African Xylophone) with Bernard Woma at the Dagara Music Center. While in Ghana he also traveled to the Volta region to study Ewe drumming and dance traditions. In addition to music, Mark has several strange interests. He is fanatical about M*A*S*H, both the television show and the movie, and can frequently be found procrastinating by watching episodes of the show. He also loves to read and watch movies about Davy Crockett, who he been obsessed with since he was three.
Copyright © 2008 by The Student Loan
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former music therapist for a mother, Mark was exposed to a broad range of music early in life. He spent hours before and after school in his father’s band room experimenting with all of the instruments. In fourth grade he started playing trumpet in the school band. Fourth grade was also the year that he was first exposed to bluegrass through the music of his homeroom teacher, John Paulson, guitarist, fiddler, and banjo player for the local band Paulson, Baker, Garvey and Keltz. 