JUNO-nominated conductor, Mark Vuorinen is Artistic Director of the Grand Philharmonic Choir, The Elora Singers, and the Elora Festival. He is also Associate Professor of Music at Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo.
A passionate advocate for new music, Mark has conducted world and Canadian premieres by composers including Barbara Assiginaak, Peter-Anthony Togni, John Burge, Timothy Corlis, Jonathan Dove, Reena Esmail, Stephanie Martin, Robinson McClellan, Tawnie Olson, and Karen Sunabacka. His recent concert highlights include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Britten’s War Requiem, Pärt’s Credo and Passio, the Passions of J.S. Bach and the Canadian premiere of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard.
His work has been recognized with numerous awards, among them the Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting from the Ontario Arts Council and a National Choral Award for Outstanding Dissertation from Choral Canada. In 2023, he received a JUNO nomination for Best Classical Album – Large Ensemble for his album Radiant Dawn: Music for Advent and Christmas.
He holds a Master of Music degree from the Yale University’s School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto.
Mark’s research explores contemporary choral music from the Baltic states, particularly the works of Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis. He has lectured internationally, including at the Arvo Pärt Project’s Sounding the Sacred conference in New York City, and his writing about Pärt’s music appears in Circuit Musiques Contemporaines, the Research Memorandum Series of Chorus America, and Principles of Music Composing (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre).