The Beginning: Originally from Brooklyn, Mark began his music career at the Institute of Audio Research (IAR) in New York City in 1972, the same year he graduated from high school. At the young age of 17, Mark was commuting into Manhattan at night, learning the inside ropes of making records and recording up and coming basement bands. After graduating from IAR, Mark was drawn to the Brit sound and was off to London, England, where he soon arrived on the doorsteps of AIR Studios, one of the world's most renowned recording facilities, owned by Sir George Martin. "I just flew over and started walking the streets of London looking for a job, stopping in every studio that I took off the back of my favorite albums," he remembers. Mark soon met Nigel Walker, who was working as an assistant to producer John Punter on an Alan Clarke (lead singer of The Hollies) solo project at AIR. "That ended up being my first job in the business, working with John Punter. Getting cigarettes and tea for the guys and just watching and listening in the background, absorbing everything." Not only did Mark gain a considerable amount of expertise in engineering and mixing records, but also invaluable experience in classic rock production & orchestral techniques working as an assistant under Sir George Martin. Sir George was responsible for producing arguably the most influential band in the history of rock 'n' roll, ‘The Beatles’. Working with George started out setting up classical recording sessions for Jack Clegg in the various cathedrals around London for the chamber choir group, The Kings Singers. He soon began setting up and assisting on various George Martin & Paul McCartney sessions. Mark's experience led to his first major engineering assignment; Carly Simon's ‘No Secrets’ album, which included the international smash, “You're So Vain”, and would become his very first of many engineering and mixing credits. Hanging out with Mick Jagger for the background vocals on “You’re So Vain” and then going over to Olympic Studios for the mixing of the Rolling Stones Live ‘72 tour tapes was certainly the highlight of his early years, and all before the age of 19. However, this was only the beginning for Mark. "I'd say the most amazing session had to be ‘Live and Let Die’, performed by Paul McCartney & Wings. "They had a 63 piece orchestra in there and I felt like I had emptied every ashtray known to man before the end of that one." (In fact, Live and Let Die is one of the very few songs from the Bond films to be nominated for a Best Song Oscar.) Mark also assisted and worked on several projects such as the groundbreaking “Roll Over Beethoven” for Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Grand Hotel for Procal Harem, Climax Blues Band and the classic Live - Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. During his tenure at AIR studios, Mark worked under the tutelage of renowned British rock engineers/producers such as Bill Price (Sex Pistols), John Punter (Japan, Reflex, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music), Steve Nye (Roxy Music), Alan Harris (T-Rex, Marc Bolan, Mott The Hoople), Geoff Emerick (The Beatles), Chris Thomas (Elton John, The Pretenders, Pink Floyd, INXS), Jeff Lynne (ELO, Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys), Martin Birch (Iron Maiden, Deep Purple) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie) to name a few. Return to New York: The Birth of Hip Hop to Independent Producer With some celebrated credits in hand, Mark returned to the States in the mid 70s. He began freelancing around New York at some of the top recording studios like Electric Lady, Record Plant and the Hit Factory as an assistant engineer. In 1977, Mark was approached with the position of Staff Engineer and In-House A&R/Producer for Vanguard Records (Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Buffy Saint-Marie, Country Joe & the Fish). Mark took the offer and worked at Vanguard Records for over ten years. While at Vanguard Studios, Mark continued to engineer and mix projects for several of New York's top dance/pop producers and became heavily involved in the early 80s New York hip-hop movement. Working with artists and producers such as Soul Sonic Force (“Looking For The Perfect Beat”), Planet Patrol (“Play At Your Own Risk”), Awesome Foursome (“Funky Soul Makosa”), New Edition (“Candy Girl”), Jellybean, Arthur Baker, Freeze (“AEIOU”), Eddie O’Loughlin (Next Plateau Records), John Robie, C-Bank (“One More Shot”), Tommy Silverman (Tommy Boy Records), Importe 12 Records, Man Parrish (the groundbreaking “Hip Hop Be Bop”) and many, many more. During this time Mark felt the explosive pulse of New York City street rhythms and his A&R skills directed him to discovering and producing up and coming dance acts such as Alisha, who after enormous success with Vanguard Records went on to sign with multi-national labels RCA and MCA/Universal, respectively. International deals that Mark put together for her. Mark's hit productions for Alisha included the #1 dance singles “All Night Passion” and “Too Turned On” along with the internation