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Artist
Mark Brandt
12+ albums
pianojazz
about
If there is a formula for success to be found in obscurity then the eclectic, jazz pianist and composer Mark Brandt has discovered it. At age 6, Mark's family relocated from San Diego, California to Northern Virginia, where he began to develop his musical talent and ability. His first professional club gig was at a piano bar in McClean, Virginia when he was just 15 years old. By the age of 18 Mark was playing jazz, fusion, and pop music for a living. In 1979, Mark graduated from high school and attended Catholic University as a classical piano performance major, working nights and weekends as a professional keyboardist with a local jazz and pop group. After three years at CU, he entered the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he completed his formal education studying jazz composition and arranging. In 1984, after leaving Boston, Mark began working full time as a freelance keyboardist in a variety of musical groups which took him from Vermont to Florida to Georgia and finally to Washington, D.C. where he relocated in 1987. Within a short time Mark was playing solo piano every night of the week, as well as playing with a trio on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday brunches. In between, he attended jam sessions all over the Northern Virginia/D.C. area. In 1992, at the urging of childhood friend and woodwind player, Geoff Thaler, Mark added teaching at the music store which Thaler owned to his roster of musical endeavors. In 1994, he released Warmup, a j
