Mark Lawrence

Office

Office C05

Email mlawrence@sfcm.edu

COURSES TAUGHT

Private Lessons

EDUCATION

BM, Curtis Institute of Music

ENSEMBLES

San Francisco Symphony, 1974–2007

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS

Principal, San Francisco Symphony

Q&A

What is your hometown?

Detroit, Michigan.

What are you passionate about outside of music?

Open-water rowing.

Who were your major teachers?

Glenn Dodson, Dee Stewart, and Allen Chase.

What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?

"How can I do this more effortlessly?"

What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?

Hearing a concert of the Moscow Philharmonic in high school.

What was a turning point in your career?

Winning my first audition.

If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?

A lawyer.

If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?

Mahler, Strauss, and Prokofiev.

Who are three students you have had the privilege of teaching?

Joe Alessi, Dee Dee Decker, and Achilles Liarmakopoulos.

What is your unrealized project?

To be able to improvise jazz.