Mark O'Connor

MARK O'CONNOR'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE  - New York City String Camp is underway!

Mark O'Connor. Photo by Greg Kessler

Untitled from Jimmy Collins on Vimeo.

“The fact is classical music has always fed off of folk traditions and has always been informed by and has thrived from infusions from folk music. Johannes Brahms wrote that great set of Hungarian dances, Dvorak wrote all kinds of music informed by Bohemian dances; Bela Bartok did it, George Gershwin did it with jazz, and now Mark is doing the same thing with American fiddling traditions. I see his influence now all across the country. He’s been doing these fiddle camps in San Diego and Tennessee and New York., with several hundred students every year. And now all across the country there’s a young generation of violinists who know American fiddle style too. And it goes the other way – the young kids who know the fiddle style learn the classical and these two worlds are starting to comingle a lot more. There’s a whole generation of twenty-something fiddlers who are growing up learning both. They know their Bach and they know their Beethoven and Mozart and they’re learning Mark’s stuff too and I think it’s going to have a real impact on the American music scene in the next decade or two.” - Fred Child, NPR's "Performance Today"

MARK O'CONNOR'S AMERICANA SYMPHONY 'VARIATIONS ON APPALACHIA WALTZ" Recorded by Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony to critical acclaim.

"Americana Symphony" may well be regarded one day as one of this country's great gifts to the classical music canon, as well as being a pivotal moment in the rise of the new American classical music"
-David McGee (Spin, Rolling Stone, Barnesandnoble.com, BluegrassSpecial.com)

"a monumental work...inevitably will be compared to Copland"
-Associated Press

"as unrepentantly tonal, accessibly melodic and sonically spacious as a great Elmer Bernstein film score"
-Los Angeles Times

"This is one of the most enjoyable contemporary orchestral CD's heard in quite some time."
-ConcertoNet.com - The Classical Music Network

"Mark O'Connor provides his answer to a question that has intrigued U. S. composers since the debut of Dvorak's New World Symphony in 1892: "How do you write the great American Symphony?"
-David Wallace- Juilliard School

"Mark O'Connor's 3-day residency at Curtis in November 2008 brought a new voice to our hallowed halls. Mark teaches and performs with incredible enthusiasm coupled with creativity and virtuosity. Our students learned much about this idiom through his original works as they watched and listened and then eventually played alongside Mark. He also gave a solo recital to an overflow audience. We hope that this was the first of many visits to Curtis."

-Dean Robert Fitzpatrick, Curtis Institute of Music - 2009

Check out the Time.com video of Mark O'Connor's American String Celebration below



MORE VIDEO

Fiddle Tunes Video Featured on The New Yorker web page



Recent New Articles (click on quote)


"My dream is to see an American string revolution," O'Connor says. It might seem like a lofty goal, but he has come a long way. Forty teachers received training in the Mark O'Connor Violin Method this past summer and there are already plans for future training sessions."

— American Federation of Musicians

"As disparate as all this activity may seem, O'Connor sees himself following a single, specific path. "It's an American music journey," he says. "What I'm doing for the first time is possibly covering most all of the bases. I think for there to be an established concept of what American music is, I have to provide examples not only in composition, developing the literature and the traditions, but also recording, teaching, doing the camps, and now trying this beginning pedagogy, which is so instrumental in getting things started for young musicians." by James Reel, All Things Strings

— James Reel, All Things Strings

"The inevitable question with Mark O'Connor, then, is always: spread too thin or genius? As a mortal human, you're just rooting for the former. Nobody should be this prolific, this catholic in his skills and interests, this widely acclaimed. But, alas, he is probably a genius."

— Will Layman, PopMatters


"The Suzuki-inspired series will, from the very beginning, expose students to a variety of North American fiddle and violin styles, including such traditional tunes as 'Soldier's Joy,' 'Arkansas Traveler,' and 'Fiddler's Dream,' plus a number of O'Connor originals."

— Fay Sheco, Homemade Education


New Yorker "Talk Of The Town"

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