Mark A. Anderson, Organist/Choirmaster

A native of Montana, Mark Anderson has served as Organist/Choirmaster at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia) since 1996, and is the first director of the Pennsylvania Girlchoir of Philadelphia. Anderson is the founder and past director of the San Marino National Organ Competition, the San Marino Music and Arts program, and the Westminster Choir College Middle School Vocal Camp. He was for several years the director of the Westminster Choir College Summer Organ Week for High School Students and is the immediate past-Dean of the Philadelphia Chapter of The American Guild of Organists. Anderson has won awards for both his choral compositions and hymns, most recently, the AGO/Concordia University Composition Award for a hymn written in conjunction with Cynthia A. Jarvis, in honor of the dedication of the new Mander organ at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.

Mr. Anderson studied at Westminster Choir College, Indiana University and The Eastman School of Music. His primary teachers have been David Craighead and Donald McDonald (organ), Joseph Flummerfelt and Robert Porco (Conducting) and Elisabeth Wright (harpsichord.) He has taught at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, Centre College of Kentucky in Danville, and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin Texas. He has held church positions in New York, Kentucky, Texas and California.

An active recitalist and hailed by music critic Jon Asgeirsson as "excellent..technically well-grounded and elegant in playing and interpretation", Mark has presented recitals and master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Germany, Iceland and Japan. Performances, both live and recorded, have been broadcast on the BBC, NPR and Icelandic State Radio. He received top reviews in the Reykjavik Morgunbladid, which referred to his playing at the monumental Hallgrimskirk as "precise and insightful. elegant."

Mark is Music Director of the Pennsylvania Girlchoir.

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