Mark Morton
Principal Double Bass,
Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Mark Morton is Principal Bass of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Professor of Double Bass at Texas Tech University. Dr. Morton is the first-prize winner of the 1990 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, and is the Artistic Director of the American School of Double Bass. He is the author of the popular “Dr. Morton” series of double bass technique books, and numerous articles in many important trade periodicals. Morton has soloed in Europe, South America, the United States, and Canada and has been a featured double bass soloist on radio broadcasts including NPR's "Performance Today," WGBH (Boston), and WQXR (New York). As a recording artist he has the Thresholds and Russian Rendezvous CDs, and shares a compact disc with Gary Karr of solo double bass music by Paul Ramsier. It was with that CD that Classical CD Reviews hailed Morton as “a most artistic representative of the new generation developed in the last half century.”
Mark Morton is an accomplished pianist, having appeared as piano concerto soloist with several orchestras, including the Houston Symphony Orchestra. His next CD, The Best of Bottesini will feature Morton accompanying himself on piano! Morton has taught at Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and was the assistant double bass instructor for Gary Karr at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. He has given numerous masterclasses including at Yale, University of Iowa, and the Conservatoire National Superieure de Musique de Paris.
Dr. Morton earned the undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Juilliard School in New York, being the first bassist in history to earn the Artist Diploma, Bachelor, Master and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees all from Juilliard.
