Mark Bruckner

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A composer-lyricist, music director, musician and sound artist based in NYC, Mr. Bruckner is on the teaching artist roster of the Brooklyn Arts Council. Intercultural theatre, musical adaptation, and new play development is the primary focus of his work as a theatre artist; he has received commissions from colleges, universities, and producing organizations across the country to compose, direct music, and create sound designs for classic, contemporary and new plays. For the past fifteen years he has been working within communities to make theatre which gives expression to the diverse visions and underrepresented voices within our society. Representative work includes "Krasang Tree" (Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Mnpls) a chamber opera based on the writings of poet U Sam Ouer, developed through intergenerational outreach within the Cambodian refugee community in Minnesota; "God, the Crackhouse and the Devil" (LaMama, NYC) by Levy Lee Simon, featuring an original score for hip-hop jazz sextet; a musical adaptation of "Midsummer Night’s Dream," commissioned by the University of Iowa; "Gift of the Magi," a musical adaptation commissioned by Riverside Theatre and Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre; Suzan-Lori Park’s "In the Blood" and Stephen Adly Giurgis‘ "Jesus Hopped the A Train" (Brooklyn College), featuring original music for jazz and percussion ensembles. Mr. Bruckner has been the resident music director/composer for Iowa Summer Repertory Theatre for the past 22 seasons. In NYC he has worked with such companies as The Women’s Project, Circle Repertory and Circle East, Imua Theatre, LaMama, the Workshop Theatre and Algonquin Theatre, and he is a frequent guest artist with the Brooklyn College Department of Theatre and Long Island University. In 2008 he received an NY Innovative Theatre Award nomination for best original music for his spoken-word musical, "Same Train" developed in collaboration with playwwright, Levy Lee Simon and director, Mary Beth Easley. "Same Train" was a featured production at the 11th biennial National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, August 2011. As a musician, Mr. Bruckner has worked with such esteemed artists/groups as Sonny Bravo, Bun Loeung and the New International Trio, Zeitgeist Percussion Ensemble, and as a pianist for numerous soloists and jazz and rock bands. As a teaching artist for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, BAC, George Street Playhouse, and Roundabout Theatre, he has been blessed to teach songwriting, musical theatre, composition, and intercultural music workshops to inner-city youth in schools throughout the five boroughs of NYC and in NJ.

Categories: Urban, Traditional / Culturally Specific, Teaching Artist, Storytelling, Poetry, Multi-Cultural, Jazz, Instrumentalist, Installation / Site Specific, Industrial, Hip Hop, Composer, Conductor, Audio / Sound, Activism, Theater, Music, Multi-Discipline, Sound / Audio, Folk / Traditional Arts