“One of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music — any music — today.” – The Los Angeles Times
A product of America’s rich aural folk tradition as well as being a Classical and Flamenco music student in his formative years, violinist and composer Mark O’Connor is widely recognized as one of the most gifted contemporary composers in America and surely one of the brightest talents of his generation. Mr. O’Connor’s creative journey began at the feet of the folk fiddler and innovator who created the modern era of American fiddling in the 1940s, Benny Thomasson, and a French jazz violinist who was considered one of the greatest improvisers in the history of the violin, Stephane Grappelli. Along the way, between these marvellous musical extremes, Mark O’Connor absorbed knowledge and influence from the multitude of musical styles and genres he studied. Now, at age 50, he has melded and shaped these influences into a new American Classical music, and is perpetuating his vision of an American School of string playing. The New York Times calls his “one of the most spectacular journeys in recent American music.” The Los Angeles Times describes him as an artist who is “one of the most talented and imaginative…working in music — any music — today.”
One of the most-recorded violinists in many genres, Mr. O’Connor’s first recording for the Sony Classical record label, Appalachia Waltz, was a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. The works Mr. O’Connor composed for the disc, including its title track, gained worldwide recognition for him as a leading proponent of a new American musical idiom. The tremendously successful follow-up release, Appalachian Journey, received a Grammy Award in February 2001.
With more than 200 performances, his first full length orchestral score The Fiddle Concerto has become the most-performed violin concerto composed in the last 40 years. In April 2000, Mr. O’Connor premiered his 4th violin concerto The American Seasons: Seasons of an American Life, at Troy Music Hall in Troy, N.Y. The New York Times said “…if Dvorak had spent his American leisure time in Nashville instead of Spillville, Iowa, ‘New World Symphony’ would have sounded like this.” The American Seasons was recorded with the Metamorphosen chamber orchestra and released in 2001.
Mr. O’Connor received a commission from fifteen symphony orchestras in 2007 to compose his Americana Symphony recorded by the Baltimore Symphony in 2008. Mark O’Connor has performed his compositions in concert at The White House, the Presidential Inauguration Celebration and the ceremonies of Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Games for which he composed Olympic Reel. He is often featured on major network television shows, and past appearances include “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Great Performances” on PBS, and the “Kennedy Center Honors.”
Mr. O’Connor regularly conducts residencies, giving lecture/demonstrations and teaching workshops, at many prestigious schools of music. He was the inaugural Herb Alpert School of Music Artist in Residence at UCLA for the 2008-2009 season and is the Frost School of Music Artist in Residence at the University of Miami from 2009 to 2012. Mr. O’Connor generously donates his time in support of a number of organizations that promote music education and outreach, including Third Street Music School Settlement, Opus 118, Midori and Friends, Project Step and Sphinx. He serves on the advisory panel for the selection of the Kennedy Center Honors. Mr. O’Connor is the founder and president of the internationally recognized Mark O’Connor String Camp and Fiddle Camp attracting over 5,000 students from around the world. New music education programs have been launched in his name including the The Mark O’Connor/Berklee College of Music Summer String Program in Boston and the O’Connor Method String Camp in Charleston. Mr. O’Connor was born in Seattle in 1961 and currently resides in New York City.
This engagement of Mark O’Connor is a Virgin Islands Presenters Initiative project, a partnership
between the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, funded by the
Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program.
