Mark Buchner - Double Bass

Mark Buchner is a double bassist specializing in new chamber music and orchestral music.  He resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he is a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony and maintains a small private teaching studio.  Devoted to accurate and engaging interpretations, his performance season is almost equally split between world premieres of living composers and fresh looks at classic pieces by composers that haven’t taken a breath in hundreds of years.

Mark grew up in Orange County, California, where he attended Chapman University, shelved books at a public library, and spent way too much money on bass guitars and amplifiers.  He snuck away to Chicago in 2009 to attend Northwestern University.  There he studied bass with Peter Lloyd while learning how to cook and fix flat tires in the snow, as well as playing with groups including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Falling in love with new music at Chapman and Northwestern made it easy to accept the first gig that Dal Niente offered him in 2009, and he officially joined the ensemble in 2011.  Since then he has given many performances with the ensemble in Chicago, around the country, and in Europe, including concerts at the 2012 Darmstadt Courses for New Music where the ensemble took home the coveted Kranichstein Music Prize.  His solo debut was in early 2015 in Chicago with a program that included rarely-heard works by Berio and Xenakis.

Recordings of Mark can be heard on numerous albums including Dal Niente’s debut album Without Words on Carrier Records and Ryan Muncy’s Hot on New Focus records, and some videos from his 2015 solo debut can be found on Youtube.

Favorite Dal Niente performance: Haas’ In Vain in 2013 in Chicago

Favorite orchestral performance: John Adams’ Harmonielehre with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in 2013