Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Marotto.
Mark, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I used to be one of those people who thought they couldn’t sing. I grew up playing the piano, and in high school, I became the accompanist for the choir. One day the choir director heard me quietly humming along from behind the piano and she insisted I get up and go stand with the tenors. As I began to sing, I started to feel something I had never experienced before, and I knew there was no going back. I fell in love with the community experience of making something beautiful together, and I have since devoted my life to creating that sense of community for others.
I have had the joy of seeing this community unfold in some pretty far-flung places. After college, I had the opportunity to move to Switzerland, and for ten years I conducted many different choirs including a village choir in the Vaud countryside, a youth choir in Lausanne, church choirs of many persuasions, and a yearly weeklong retreat in the Jura mountains with 120 singers where we sang day and night to prepare such magnificent works as the Brahms Requiem. When I turned 30, I decided to return to the US and focus on music education. While pursuing a doctorate in choral conducting at the University of Michigan, I continued working with local church choirs in Ann Arbor and made weekly drives across the Canadian border to direct the Windsor Classic Chorale.
Since arriving in Houston, my dream of combining music education and community building has realized itself thanks to Lone Star College – Montgomery. The open-door policy of our community colleges ensures that people of all walks of life, ages and backgrounds have a chance to come together and sing. I direct two choirs, and we are currently preparing a concert tribute to Matthew Shepard, 20 years later. I am increasingly fascinated by music’s ability to tell stories, and my next projects are going to focus on storytelling centered around the diverse communities of Houston. I have also been recently invited to be an advisory board member of a Houston-based theater company called Horse Head Theater whose very mission is visceral storytelling. I am forever looking for ways to bring diverse groups of people together and to tell stories through group singing.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I realized somewhere along the way that I had to stop trying to plan the next five years of my life because I kept getting it wrong. And not only was I wrong, my best-laid plans were consistently falling short of the amazing things life actually had in store. My yoga practice has helped me face life’s unexpected twists and turns with equanimity, that is, the ability to say “yes” to the good, the bad and the ugly.
What else should we know about your work?
I bring together people to create community and tell stories through choral singing. I believe that anyone can sing and learn to read music, and the very experience of group singing breaks down barriers, perceived differences, and helps people express their greatest selves. I live for those brief moments of collective virtuosity when a group of people go beyond what they thought was possible and create something extraordinary together. I’ve seen it happen in Cuba when I brought a group of students and faculty to experience singing and dancing in Havana, in Switzerland when I brought together 250 people to perform a Mozart Requiem to raise funds for the victims of the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia, and in Houston when I brought together the Houston Cecilia Chamber Choir with local professional musicians to tell the story of Butterfly Dreams, the haunting poetry of children of the Holocaust. Choral music is both uplifting and challenging, and I love leading diverse groups of people through the practice.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
As a good friend once told me, Houston is the frontier. I have the sense that anything is possible here, and I also don’t expect the road to be smoothly paved.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I know that I have done my job well when the people around me are singing from their hearts and are telling their stories authentically. These are moments of shared joy that I think we all need more of.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.lonestar.edu/mark-marotto.htm
- Email: mark.marotto@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.marotto
Image Credit:
Samuel Negrete
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