Mark Wait has been Dean and Professor of Music at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, Tennesee, since 1993. Before that he was on the faculty of the College of Music at the University of Colorado, where he also served, from 1985 to 1993, as the executive assistant to the President. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Wichita State University, his Master of Music degree at Kansas State University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

He served on the Country Music Hall of Fame Board of Directors in Nashville, Tennessee from 2001 to 2005, and has served as National Vice President of the honorary music society, Pi Kappa Lambda, since 2003.

As a concert pianist Mark Wait has presented over 200 concerts in 25 states. In 1989 he was the pianist in a performance at Alice Tully Hall of Elliot Carter’s Double Concerto for Piano, Harpsichord, and Two Chamber Orchestras, conducted by Robert Craft. In 1993 he recorded Igor Stravinsky’s solo works for piano as part of Robert Craft’s recorded cycle of the composer’s complete works. Most recently, his recording with the Nashville Symphony of Elliott Carter’s Piano Concerto (Naxos 8.559151) was nominated for a 2004 Grammy award for Best Classical Album, and Wait was a 2004 Grammy Nominee for Best Instrumental Solo Performance with Orchestra for the same recording.

Discography