Mark Bridges
cello
www.markbridgesmusic.com

Bio

A native of the Boston area, Mark received his bachelor's degree from Boston University where he studied with David Soyer, and Leslie Parnas. While at BU, Mark studied chamber music with the Muir string quartet and members of the Boston Symphony. As a chamber musician he has performed with members of the Borodin, Muir, and Pro Arte String Quartets and attended the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and the Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency. He has performed on the CBC and WPR for “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen.” Mark holds an MM from the Eastman School of Music and Orchestral Studies Diploma, which he earned as an orchestral fellow with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently he is a section cellist with the Dubuque Symphony and plays frequently with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. In the Fall of 2014, he was an artist in residence at the Banff Centre and in 2016 was a resident at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts in Saratoga, Wyoming. He is the recipient of the Daniel Gregg Myers, Dorothea Schmidt nee Boller awards and the Bernard Milofsky travel award from the University of Wisconsin. A former adjunct cello teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Mark now teaches privately in the Madison area, coaches chamber music for WYSO and teaches cello and conducts the intermediate strings at Eagle School in Fitchburg, WI.

​

What is your favorite piece of chamber music?
I have many rotating favorites, but Schumann Piano Quartet, Beethoven Op. 127, and Brahms C minor piano Quartet. I guess I like my pieces to have been written in the 19th century and have three flats.


When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
I heard a performance of the aforementioned Brahms Quartet at a summer festival when I was 15 and was so moved. I hadn't really ever considered that I would be good enough to make it as a performer, but hearing what those performers could do inspired me and I decided then that  things would make me as happy as learning to interpret and express a beautiful piece of music.


What’s your favorite Madison restaurant and what do you like to eat there?
There is so much good food in Madison, it's really hard to pick a favorite, but I really enjoy Forequarter. They have a really special touch with vegetable dishes in particular.


What’s playing on your ipod right now?
Sylvan Esso, Loscil, A Winged Victory for the Sullen,  Guarneri Quartet's Late Beethoven.


What would have been your career if not music?
I spent much of my childhood designing things and trying to make them, so I always thought that I'd have made a good engineer. I like to figure out how things work and still love taking mechanical devices apart to do just that. This doesn't always end well, but it's a lot of fun. 


Where can we find you when you're not at WSCP rehearsals?
Aside from teaching and performing, I am probably exercising my dog, riding my bike, playing bike polo, or spending a night out at a concert or lecture.


What’s your favorite part about WSCP?
there are many things to love about the experience of playing chamber music in this way, but I think my favorite thing about it is playing directly to the community I live in. It is special to walk one block to the concert hall and get to share this with all of my neighbors.