Mark Elliot Bergman

Director of Strings and Orchestral Studies

D.A. George Mason University
M.M. Yale University
M.M. Manhattan School of Music
B.M. Eastman School of Music

Dr. Mark Elliot Bergman is the Director of Strings and Orchestral Studies at Sheridan College. He teaches double bass, electric bass, cello, viola da gamba, composition, songwriting, and music history. As an ensemble leader, Mark directs the Sheridan College Symphony Orchestra and Sheridan College Viol Consort, as well as the professional early music ensemble Wyoming Baroque. He is also the Assistant Principal Double Bassist of the Billings Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, Mark performs with Assisi Performing Arts in Assisi, Italy, and the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon. Mark has an active background as an orchestral double bassist. He held positions as the Principal Double Bassist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, and the Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra in Cuiabá, Brazil. He formerly served as a Professor of Music History and Ensemble Director at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

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. Fairfax Connections recently cited them for “turning classical music cool.” The ensemble received support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts to tour state-wide and performed regionally at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, George Mason University, Montgomery College, Arts Club of Washington, and other venues. Mark also has extensive experience performing klezmer music throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. He appeared as an on-stage character in Theater J’s 2014 musical adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Yentl the Yeshiva Boy.” His performance on CD companion to Mel Bay’s Easy Klezmer Tunes was described as “world-class.” Mark appeared as a baroque double bassist with the Washington Bach Consort, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Wyoming Baroque, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and other ensembles.

Recital Music in the United Kingdom publishes Mark’s compositions. His orchestral works have been performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Wyoming State Strings Clinic, and other ensembles. He received the 2011 William Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County. The award included a cash prize and supported his creation of a multi-movement string trio (Shenandoah Suite), commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Shenandoah National Park’s founding. He won the second British International Bass Forum Composition Contest (2002) and the Kappa Gamma Psi composition (1990).

Dr. Bergman completed the Doctor of Arts degree ​from George Mason University in 2015. Cognella Academic Press published his book In The Groove: Form and Function in Popular Music in 2012.

Mark lives in Sheridan, Wyoming, with his wife Rachel and their children Avi and Zachary.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Different Strokes: Giambattista Cimador’s chamber music arrangement of Mozart’s Haffner (no. 35) and Paris (no. 31) Symphonies, Online Journal of Bass Research,15(1), (2022);
https://www.ojbr.com/volume-15-number-1.asp

Beyond the Conservatory Model: Reimagining Classical Music Performance Training in Higher Education, Music Reference Services Quarterly, 24(3), pp. 179–180 (2021)

Remixing the Classroom: Toward an Open Philosophy of Music Education. Music Reference Services Quarterly, 20(3-4), pp. 231–232 (2017)

100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own. Music Reference Services Quarterly, 17(3), pp. 193–194 (2014)

Killer Technique: Upright Bass. American String Teacher, 63(4), 71, (2013)

Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer edited by Yale Strom. Music References Services Quarterly, 16, 121 – 130 (2013)