Mark Churchill

Cello; Dean Emeritus, Preparatory and Continuing Education; Director, El Sistema USA

Educator, conductor, and cellist Mark Churchill is Dean Emeritus of New England Conservatory’s Department of Preparatory and Continuing Education, which he led for 31 years. He currently serves as director of El Sistema USA, the advocacy and service organization for American programs that emulate the renowned Venezuelan model of social development through music. During his leadership of the Preparatory School, the program became known as one of the best of its kind in the nation, emphasizing serious, professional training for the pre-college student in addition to numerous community based programs and local, national, and international partnerships.

Churchill has been an active advocate for the improvement and expansion of music education programs in American schools. He is the founder and vice president of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, established in 2002, which draws gifted young musicians from throughout North and South America.  For eleven years he served as Resident Conductor and Faculty Chairman of the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong, a pan-Asian organization founded by the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

Churchill is widely known in New England and abroad. He has been Associate Conductor of the Boston Ballet since 1992, and is the founder and Music Director of Symphony Pro Musica, Worcester's Salisbury Lyric Opera, and the Salisbury Chamber Orchestra. He recently led the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra in its annual gala concert.

In 2005, Churchill spearheaded the signing of the "Friendship Agreement" between New England Conservatory and Venezuela's massive El Sistema youth orchestral training program--planting the seeds for NEC's close relationship to that program. He serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations including Project STEP, a pre-professional support program for string students of color; the Conservatory Lab Charter School, a K-5 public inner-city elementary school offering a music based curriculum; the Walnut Hill School, an independent school for serious high school age art students; the Berkshire Institute for Theology and the Arts; and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas.

As a cellist Churchill has appeared as soloist, recitalist and chamber music player throughout the United States and on tours of South America and Asia.  Most recently he performed in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taiwan with the Trio Pro Musica. 

Churchill was married to violinist and educator, the late Marylou Speaker Churchill. He resides in Newton, Massachusetts, with their twin daughters.

Photo by Andrew Hurlbut

B.M., M.M., NEC; D.M.A., University of Hartford. Studies with Herbert Blomstedt and Charles Bruck (conducting); Rudolf Kolisch (chamber music); and Raya Garbousova, Laurence Lesser and David Soyer (cello). Also faculty of the Heifetz International Institute.

2009-11-11