Meet the Conductor

Mark A. Adrian

Mark Adrian has been involved in the Greater Seattle choral music community since 1981. He founded Northwest Associated Arts, an umbrella organization of seven individual choruses: Choral Sounds Northwest, KidSounds Northwest, YouthSounds Northwest, TeenSounds Northwest, Cantaré Vocal Ensemble, and SeniorSounds Northwest. For 21 years he conducted Choral Sounds Northwest, the first of NWAA's performing groups. In 2000, he founded Cantaré Vocal Ensemble, NWAA’s unique mixed-voice chorus of approximately 40 singers whose repertoire is vast and varied, ranging from spirituals to psalms and from plainchant to major works, with a particular emphasis on lesser-known contemporary compositions. In 2008, along with Lana Mountford, he developed SeniorSounds Northwest, a group of choruses based in several different retirement communities.

Mr. Adrian earned his BA in Music from the University of Washington, studying with renowned conductors Abraham Kaplan, Geoffrey Boers, Peter Eros, and Rodney Eichenberger. He has since gone on to complete graduate coursework for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, specializing in choral conducting. In 2004, he passed his general examinations and was awarded the DMA Certificate.

Equally at home in everything from Broadway musicals to the most contemporary choral compositions, Mark has most recently served as guest conductor of the Bainbridge Chorale and interim conductor of the Seattle Women's Ensemble. He has led music programs at churches throughout Seattle and is currently director of music at St. Catherine of Siena church in the Maple Leaf neighborhood of north Seattle. In addition to his conducting responsibilities, Mark maintains a private studio for voice, piano, theory, and conducting students (www.markadrianmusic.com).

Mr. Adrian has become known in the Seattle area for coordinating large choral events at Benaroya Hall. Each year in this magnificent venue, he brings together a number of choruses and orchestras to perform one of the great choral masterpieces. He has conducted, among others, Bainbridge Chorale, Everett Chorale, Master Chorus Eastside, Choir of the Sound, Rainier Chorale, Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Rainier Symphony, Cascade Symphony, and Sammamish Symphony Orchestra.

Many churches, schools, and area conductors seek Mr. Adrian's expertise as a choral clinician, and he frequently adjudicates at music competitions and festivals. He is a published composer and arranger with many of his works having been performed locally. Among the organizations in which he is active are the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, Conductor's Guild, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and American Guild of Organists.