Bassist, composer, author, and educator Dr. Mark Elliot Bergman is currently the Director of Strings at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. In addition to leading the strings program, he teaches music history, composition and directs the Sheridan College Symphony Orchestra and the Sheridan College Viol Consort. Mark is a former faculty member and ensemble director at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia where he lead M3E, the Mason Modern Music Ensemble. Mark performs violone with many leading early music groups including the Washington Bach Consort, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, and the Jewel Tones, An active orchestral bassist, Mark served as the Principal Double Bassist of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Matto Groso Chamber Orchestra in Cuiaba, Brazil. Mark spends his summers performing with the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon and with Assisi Performing Arts in Assisi, Italy.
In 2006, Mark founded Virginia Virtuosi, a string trio dedicated to innovative chamber music programs and arts education. The ensemble maintains a very active performing schedule and won the first Yale University Alumni Ventures Award in 2008. They were recently cited by Fairfax Connections for “turning classical music cool.” The ensemble received annual support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts to tour statewide and has performed regionally at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, George Mason University, Montgomery College, and other venues. Mark also has extensive experience performing klezmer music throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. He recorded for Mel Bay Publications and his performance on CD companion to Mel Bay’s Easy Klezmer Tunes has been described as “world class.”
Mark’s compositions are published by Recital Music. His orchestral works have been performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Virtuosi, and other ensembles. He received the 2011 Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County supporting the creation of Shenandoah Suite, a string trio commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Shenandoah National Park. He was a winner in the second British International Bass Forum Composition Contest (2002) and the Kappa Gamma Psi composition (1990).
Scholar's Press published Mark's book, "Get Up, Stand Up: Higher Order Thinking in Popular Music Studies" in 2015. Cognella Academic Press published Mark’s book "In The Groove: Form and Function in Popular Music in 2012." Mark also created extensive supplemental learning resources for music textbooks issued by Oxford University Press. He regularly appears as a double bass recitalist and lecturer at academic conferences and reviews manuscripts and submissions for American String Teacher and the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
In 2006, Mark founded Virginia Virtuosi, a string trio dedicated to innovative chamber music programs and arts education. The ensemble maintains a very active performing schedule and won the first Yale University Alumni Ventures Award in 2008. They were recently cited by Fairfax Connections for “turning classical music cool.” The ensemble received annual support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts to tour statewide and has performed regionally at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, George Mason University, Montgomery College, and other venues. Mark also has extensive experience performing klezmer music throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. He recorded for Mel Bay Publications and his performance on CD companion to Mel Bay’s Easy Klezmer Tunes has been described as “world class.”
Mark’s compositions are published by Recital Music. His orchestral works have been performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Virtuosi, and other ensembles. He received the 2011 Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County supporting the creation of Shenandoah Suite, a string trio commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Shenandoah National Park. He was a winner in the second British International Bass Forum Composition Contest (2002) and the Kappa Gamma Psi composition (1990).
Scholar's Press published Mark's book, "Get Up, Stand Up: Higher Order Thinking in Popular Music Studies" in 2015. Cognella Academic Press published Mark’s book "In The Groove: Form and Function in Popular Music in 2012." Mark also created extensive supplemental learning resources for music textbooks issued by Oxford University Press. He regularly appears as a double bass recitalist and lecturer at academic conferences and reviews manuscripts and submissions for American String Teacher and the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
