PETER MARK

Peter Mark served for over 35 years as Founding General, Artistic Director, and Chief Conductor of VIRGINIA OPERA (1975-2010) -- where he is now Emeritus --  a company known for the discovery, development and presentation of major operatic talent in productions of musical and dramatic integrity – singers such as Renee Fleming, Diana Soviero, Frederick Burchinal, Barbara Dever, Brandon Jovanovic, Bryan Register, Brian Jagde, Christian Van Horn and Lawrence Brownlee.
 
He has a uniquely comprehensive background and experience in opera – first as chief boy-soprano chorister and soloist of the Metropolitan Opera for three seasons in its glory days in the mid-1950’s (with many performances onstage with opera greats such as Tebaldi, Milanov, Albanese, Steber, Stevens, Tucker, Bjoerling, Del Monaco, Merrill, Warren and Siepi; then as the Concertmaster of the Columbia University Orchestra and Principal Violist of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Chicago Lyric Opera; then as Professor of Music and Drama at University of California at Santa Barbara; and then conducting opera for four decades at the companies he built and ran in Virginia, as well as conducting operas on 5 continents -- NYC, London, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Krakow, Mozambique and Shanghai.
 
He now utilizes his broad experience and skill to help singers integrate the finest operatic vocal
and musical traditions into  their repertoire through his regular Masterclasses and private coaching
​now online around the world.