Meet a Musician: Mark Doerries, Conductor

Bloomington, Indiana, is a special city for musicians—visitor or resident, foreign or domestic, famous or little-known. It also happens to be a city with a large university and a large school of music, a meeting place for all kinds of performers, educators, and researchers. This post is part of a photo series that looks at the many people in Bloomington who call themselves a musician.

Mark Doerries is a choral conductor who’s in the process of completing a Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University.

He’s no ordinary musician.

Mark has the type of creative mind that looks toward the future—constantly searching, experimenting, and creating projects that bring together his many interests. It’s no surprise that he devotes a lot of creative energy towards the performance of New Music.

In fact, he has his own ensemble called the Luminescence Project, which “combines current research, performance and discussion in an effort to promote multi-sensory classical music, particularly choral music.”

The next Luminescence Project performance, “PASSIONate CONVICTions,” will focus on J.S. Bach’s Johannes Passion (at the I.U. Art Museum). It won’t be your typical Passion, however, because (1) it will staged, and (2) Mark has made an arrangement of it for voices, strings, saxophones, and electric guitars(!)—a resolutely 21st-century take on Bach’s music.

I first met Mark when I played for one of his doctoral recitals. It was the first time that he’d worked intensely on Early Music and with a period instrument orchestra. He wasn’t too proud to admit that New Music was really his thing and that he had limited experience with early repertoire. And yet you would have never known it.

His concert, which also included staging, was a success, to say the least. He took Bach and Carissimi’s music, absorbed it, then presented it in a way that gave the audience a new perspective on traditional choral repertoire. They, in turn, thanked him with extended applause and a standing ovation.

I can imagine his take on the Johannes Passion will be just as successful.

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