Mark Sullivan

Dr. Mark Sullivan earned his D.M.A. from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he served as studio teaching assistant to the entire piano performance faculty. Upon graduation from USC Thornton, Sullivan was honored with the Keyboard Studies Department Award, the Pi Kappa Lambda Award, for having the highest academic standing in his class, and was honored with the 1995 Thornton School’s Outstanding Doctoral Graduate award. He earned his M.M. degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Menahem Pressler was his main teacher and mentor. Other influential teachers were Stewart Gordon, John Perry, Rosalyn Tureck and Stephen Kovacevich.

 

As a young pianist, Sullivan won concerto competitions at USC (Mozart, K.503) and Indiana University (Rachmaninoff Second). He also won top awards in the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition’s national finals, the Palm Springs International Piano Competition and the Virginia Beach Symphony concerto competition. He has performed widely throughout California and has twice performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

 

A dedicated adjudicator for music competitions, Sullivan frequently serves as a judge for the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition in New York City. Over the past 40 years, he has judged hundreds of competitions for the Southern California Junior Bach Festival, MTAC, CAPMT and SYMF, as well as piano competitions for USC, UCLA CSU, Fullerton, CSU Long Beach and many other colleges, universities and organizations.

 

During the 2000s, Menahem Pressler invited Dr. Sullivan to teach for him at Indiana University during Pressler’s extended concert tours. Sullivan has traveled to Tokyo many times to conduct master classes, lecture demonstrations, private coaching sessions and student performance evaluations. Sullivan’s former private students have gone on to advanced studies with artists such as Menahem Pressler, Alfred Brendel and Claude Frank and can be heard on major labels such as Deutsche Gramophone and Sony Classical.

 

From 2006 to 2018, Sullivan served as General Chairman of the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. He continues to perform as soloist and chamber musician and coaches advanced pianists at his home studio in the Bluff Heights neighborhood of Long Beach.