Mark Morton

Assistant Professor of Double Bass at Texas Tech University, Dr. Mark Morton was for twenty-three years a member of the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra, fourteen years as principal bass. Morton is the first-prize winner of the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition in New York City, and was the assistant double bass instructor to Gary Karr at The Hartt School of Music.

A busy recitalist and concerto performer, Morton has been a featured double bass soloist on radio broadcasts including NPR's "Performance Today," WGBH in Boston, and WQXR in New York. His critically acclaimed Thresholds and Russian Rendezvous albums, are the first two of a projected series of CDs of standard double bass repertoire. He also shares a compact disc with world-renowned bassist Gary Karr of solo double bass music by Paul Ramsier. It was with that CD that Classical CD Reviews hailed him as "a most artistic representative of the new generation developed in the last half century."

An accomplished pianist, Morton began his musical studies on both the double bass and piano. By the age of seventeen he had performed as piano soloist with several orchestras including the Houston Symphony Orchestra. His next CD, Bottesini's Greatest Hits! will feature Mark accompanying himself on piano! Focusing his musical energies on the double bass, Dr. Morton earned the undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Juilliard School in New York. He subsequently went on to be only the second bassist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the history of that institution.

As an author, Mark has written and published the "Dr. Morton" series of books on the art of bass playing. He has had many articles appear in Strings, Bass World, and American String Teacher magazines, as well the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Mark Morton is the Artistic Director of the American School of Double Bass, drawing students, teachers, and professionals from all over the United States to its summer camps, private lessons, workshops and masterclasses.

To contact Mark Morton, email him at mark.morton@ttu.edu.