About Mark Alan Filbert
Mark has been making music since his first piano lesson on his sixth birthday. Active in choral and instrumental ensembles throughout junior high and high school, he grew up playing piano and organ for church services and has since served as organist and/or choir director for churches in Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. He is currently Cantor (Organist/Choir Director) for Saint Paul Lutheran Church in downtown Denver, a position he has held since 2002. He also taught K-12 Music for nine years in Chicago and has hadnumerous piano and organ students from ages 4 to 94 over the course of his career.
Currently pursuing a doctoral degree in sacred music (DSM) through the Graduate Theological Foundation, Mark holds bachelor’s degrees in sacred music (BM) and music education (BME) from Oral Roberts University and master’s degrees in sacred music (MSM) and choral conducting (MM) from Southern Methodist University. He completed further study in the United States at Northwestern University, Westminster Choir College, Hamline University, the University of South Carolina, and DePaul University, from which he received the Level III Orff-Schulwerk Teaching Certificate, and in Europe at the Netherlands Carillon School, the Haarlem International Organ Academy, also in the Netherlands, and the Centro Pro Unione in Rome.
Mark’s scholarly articles and reviews have been published in Reformed Liturgy and Music, The American Organist, and The Hymn. An avid collector of hymnals, he is a Life Member of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and has been a featured performer and/or workshop presenter at four national conferences. He is also an active member of the American Guild of Organists, having recently served as Worship Chair for the 2019 Denver Regional Convention, and as Sub-Dean, Dean, and Grant Writer for the Denver Rocky Mountain Chapter. He resides in Aurora, Colorado, with his husband of thirty years, Thomas Strickland, and their two cats, Libby and Brubeck.
As a teacher, Mark loves to share the joy of making music with students of all ages and focuses on developing on a solid technique, good reading and rhythmic skills, and, above all, musicianship and musicality.
