Mark A. Taylor

Mark A. Taylor is honored to serve in his first full season as the Music Director of the
internationally award-winning Chicago Brass Band. A conductor, educator, and
performer in demand throughout the Great Lakes region, Dr. Taylor has taught with
distinction at every level of study, ranging from elementary, middle, and high school to
collegiate, amateur, and professional musicians. His new appointment follows nearly
twenty years as a section percussionist with the band.

Dr. Taylor is no stranger to brass band leadership, now entering his second decade with
the Milwaukee Festival Brass, and directing them to five medal-winning performances in
the last six contest seasons. He is also the Music Director of the Waukegan Band, one
of America’s oldest and most historic civic ensembles; and serves as Band Director at
College of DuPage.

He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2016 from the University of North
Texas, where his principal conducting teachers were Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Dennis
Fisher, and Nicholas Enrico Williams. Dr. Taylor’s dissertation, “British-Style Brass
Bands in U.S. Colleges and Universities,” documented the existence of brass bands in
American college music programs, past and present.

Prior to his doctoral study, he served five years as Director of Bands and Coordinator of
Ensembles at Loyola University Chicago. During the same period, he taught on the
music education faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt
University.
 
Dr. Taylor received the Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where he
studied conducting with John P. Paynter and Stephen G. Peterson; he received his
training in music education from renowned pedagogues Bennett Reimer and Peter
Webster. 

He received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Notre Dame, where his
first conducting teachers were Walter Ginter and Carl Stam. His final appearance as
Drum Major of the Band of the Fighting Irish coincided with the football team’s most
recent national championship (1989). He also performed in the Concert Band,
Orchestra, Liturgical Choir, Men’s Glee Club, and Collegium Musicum.
Dr. Taylor and his wife and son reside in Lake Forest, IL.