MUSIC

UNH Music presents the Harry Jones Memorial Concert featuring the Seacoast Big Band, under the direction of David Seiler, with guest composer/arranger Mark Taylor. Mark Taylor was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1961. He started playing piano at age six, singing in the Chattanooga Boy Choir at seven and took up the clarinet at nine, later switching to bass clarinet, then fell in love with the French horn as a teenager. Intent on a career in orchestral and studio playing, Mark studied music at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. There, he was introduced to jazz and the music of Julius Watkins, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk's favorite French horn player. Mesmerized by the possibilities of improvising with the French horn, he transferred to the jazz and studio music program, studying with jazz education pioneer Jerry Coker and graduating in 1986. After graduate studies with Dave Holland and George Russell at New England Conservatory in Boston, Mark moved to New York where he has performed and recorded for two decades with an array of modern giants.