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The German conductor, Mark Mast, first took piano lessons at the age of five. Later on he also attended guitar and saxophone classes. In 1982, after graduating from high school, he started studying Musical Science and German Literature at the Heidelberg University. In 1983 he began a degree in Musical Education at the Heidelberg-Mannheim Music Academy, where his main focus was conducting. During his studies he also took part in various conducting classes, taught by Leonhard Bernstein among others, and conducted the Heidelberger Streicherensemble and the Junge Musikfreunde as well as the Renegaten Choir of Mannheim.
In 1987 Mark Mast received a scholarship from the Richard-Wagner-Stipendienstiftung - which he was awarded again in 1993 - and began extensive conducting studies under Sergiu Celibidache. This took him from the Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein-Musik-Festival (1987 and 1988), via Mainz and Paris, to Sergiu Celibidache master classes in Munich. In order to continue his studies with Sergiu Celibidache, he was given a one-year-scholarship by the Käthe-Dannemann Foundation in 1991.
From 1990 to 1992 Mark Mast was chief conductor of the Schumann Orchestra in Munich and also directed the Landesjugendorchester Nordrhein-Westfalen at the Huitième Festival de Monflanquin - Musique en Guyenne. In May 1993 he took over the leadership of the Münchner Jugenorchester. He conducted the orchestra on its summer tour through Germany, France and Spain. In November he was invited on a tour through Colorado, a very successful concert-debut in the USA. |
