Mark O'Connor

Mark and Maggie O'Connor w. Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra New York City, February 7th, 2025 "Honeysuckle Rose" by Thomas "Fats Waller and Andy Razaf Arranged by Mark O'Connor, orchestrated by Andy Farber Musicians: JLCO: Ryan Kisor, Kenny Rampton, Marcus Printup, Nick Mesler, Chris Crenshaw, Elliot Mason, Sherman Irby, Alexa Tarantino, Paul Nedzela, Chris Lewis, Abdias Armenteros, Carlos Henriquez, Obed Calvaire, Sean Mason & Gavin Rice Video courtesy of Jazz at Lincoln Center SKYLINE MYRIAD ARTISTS AGENCY Bookings for "Mark and Maggie O'Connor" "Mark O'Connor's An Appalachian Christmas" Symphony Orchestra Performances . . #markandmaggieoconnor #wyntonmarsalis #jazzatlincolncenter #livemusic

Check out some very cool highlight moments of a few of my orchestral compositions performed live-in-concert! These 3 pieces feature Mark and Maggie O’Connor playing the fiddles, along with the fabulous Winston Salem Symphony conducted by Michelle Merrill, all of whom sprang up and nailed it down! It is quite a privilege to bring these clips to you, compliments of the WSS. In fact it’s a rare treat to be able to share musical moments like these featuring a large, awesome, professional symphony orchestra, so please enjoy! Well played by everyone! . #markandmaggieoconnor #Symphony #orchestra

Happy Labor Day everyone! We put something together that is fun to see—a highlight mashup of the first seven violin duos that Maggie and I filmed music videos of in and around New York City. My father was a laborer, and he worked extremely hard. It was in his DNA to work as hard as he did, born on the ranch in Montana, but he needed to pay the bills, too: A day job at a lumber yard and his evening job was repairing foundations under houses. At 12, I was to join him on those evening jobs after school on a permanent basis, but it was also the age that my music really took off, and I could bring money to the household winning fiddle and guitar competitions in the adult divisions. By then, I had my own band, Mark O'Connor and the Tennesseans (in Seattle). But I was also on a construction site or two working at 15 and 16 and fully appreciate the laborers in our country. My dad worked his butt off for so many years. And he retired with some dignity. Social Security, medicare, and he got to do a lot of his favorite hobby, ballroom dancing—and take trips to see me perform around the country. He loved my music more than about anything, it got to be only thing he'd want to listen to at home. He never got to see Maggie and I play together. It would have pleased him like nothing else. Here's to dad's memory, and many of you on this important holiday. Seven Violin Duos are now available in digital sheet music through my page: /sheet-music-downloads Once you are at the Arrange Me site, search "Seven Violin Duos" or: 1271418 . . #happylaborday #markoconnor #markandmaggieoconnor #sevenviolinduos

You are listening to a John Jarvis piano solo from ‘On The Mark’ - the tune is “Pacific Expectations”. The remastered version out yesterday wherever you listen to music! . #onthemark #markoconnor #newrelease #jamestaylor #michaelbrecker #johnjarvis

We met 12 years ago today, and the rest is history 💜🎻🎻 💜 Come celebrate with us at our duo show this weekend in Tryon, NC Saturday night at the @tryonfineartscenter ! #MarkandMaggieOConnor #MarkOconnor #Maggieoconnor #meetaversary #12years

The link tree to the brand new remaster of my 1989 album 'On The Mark' is out today! I was able to acquire this album from Warner Bros. Records for my own label OMAC Records, so now it joins the family of releases! And this is a real highlight of my contemporary fusion period of the time, with guests artists featured; the iconic James Taylor on one of my most beloved tracks, "Ol' Blue"; and the saxophone legend Michael Brecker on the uplifting "Get, Set Go" and the fireworks of "We're Surrounded." The album session band was simply amazing. Working on the remastering of this album with Dave Harris at Studio B brought back the memories of the original session vividly. The studio band played live in the studio and what incredible mastery of session playing from the period; Eddie Bayers on drums, Michael Rhodes on bass, Tom Roady on percussion, John Jarvis, Matt Rollings and Mike Lawler all on keyboards. I played all the violin, and overdubbed some background Fender Stratocaster parts throughout. A couple of pieces had some lush strings arranged by Edgar Meyer. My co-producers were also beautiful to work with, Paul Worley (a hit maker), and the recording and mixing engineer Ed Seay who created a masterclass of contemporary fusion recording of the 1980s. There are several tunes from this record that made the difference for my career. The original version of "Bowtie" here led directly to the idea and creation of the TNN television show I directed, 'American Music Shop' for 4 years. "March of the Pharoahs" was a radio hit on many "WAVE" stations and Triple A stations around the country in the day, and the piece is featured in the O'Connor Method book series. "Hot Tamale" and "Pacific Expectations" both got a lot of additional airplay at the time. "Miniatures" is a duo featuring the incredible John Jarvis and it's the piece I've performed the most on stage over the years - having a gospel-like quality to this instrumental. BTW, it was the 2nd full take in the studio of this duet, (no fixes as we used to say)... (more in comments, and link tree in stories). . . #onthemark #markoconnor #nerelease #remaster

The full ‘On The Mark” album remastered hits the streaming services in just an hour! (Release day May 15th). Got the album countdown going it looks like on Spotify. First time I was able to do that... I guess I have more active listeners now than before—that’s wild! Enjoy this album—you’ve heard “Ol’ Blue” with James Taylor, and the Michael Brecker tracks. Now the rest of them! A big sound, get ready to crank it! #OnTheMark #markoconnor

In the Opry dressing room. Really jazzed about this Saturday night at the Tryon Fine Arts Center for the duo of Mark and Maggie O’Connor. The hall is filling up so get your last-minute tickets now! Tryon, NC 7:30 (May 16th) Tix: /tour

We are so looking forward to our concert this Saturday night at the Tryon Fine Arts Center in North Carolina! We are nearing a capacity concert hall! Get remaining tickets through /tour @tryonfineartscenter . #markandmaggieoconnor #tryon #northcarolina #concert #livemusic

I saw Rosanne Cash post this. More and more musicians are finally speaking out. When I did so online for the last couple of years, it was a lonely world out here. But everyone has a line I guess, and when it’s crossed, then artists speak out with more of a unifying voice. In my former home state of TN, the Repub gerrymandering looks like the way of other southern states in Trumpism now (I knew it was coming, didn’t everybody? Especially people who at least thought they supported this direction), but this particularly looks like extreme out-in-the-open racism (not just partisan), complete with these white male lawmakers mocking and laughing at what they’re doing to the majority black district that is Memphis. Oddly, the very same thing was done to Nashville by the conservative legislature a couple years back and I posted on it, but I didn’t see that many musicians up in arms. I don’t live there in Nashville anymore, but I guess they want what they want. Nashville was dissected into thirds, and the lines were drawn way, way out to rope in enough rural Repub voters to outweigh the remaining liberals in Nashville proper—once a solid blue area back when I lived there. Actually more than half the state was blue in the 90s and years following. Isn’t that something, though. Farmers in several counties away voting on zoning-schools, guns… for the big city-and getting their way. Well, they are doing that to Memphis to assure that white rural folks can vote on gun laws, and schooling for the black folks in the inner city, denying their elected black leaders of having a chance to create legislation for the city that is 75% made up of blacks and Hispanics. They’ll win at their ugly game unless it is a crushing blue wave this November. I usually like a moderate balance, but the people who don’t want to turn back to the old south—“state’s rights”, will have to get out the vote. It was just the federal law that prevented the southern states from their worst impulses. Musicians in the South should be leading, and not selfishly worried about losing a few Meta followers. It’ll happen, but you’ll gain twice as many back. I know it firsthand. #tennessee #memphis #nashville

Happy Mother's Day. I carry thoughts of my mother with me each day, and it's been 44 years since she passed away at age 51. She was a great person. Had an unbelievably hard life. When my music got going, she looked out for my music like no other. She was the only reason why I learned music at all—and then she got me to 5 different music lessons per week (on five instruments) when I was 11 and 12. The lessons with Benny about 2 /12 hour drive away from us, were free, and lasted all day long. The others were local to Seattle and cost us about $4 a lesson, but by the time I was 12, my gig and contest money was paying for the lessons. As many of you know, the memoir about my young years, is dedicated to Mom. It is really a story about a mother and her son. 'Crossing Bridges.' Here's to all the Moms past and present. Memories of Mom /2014/05/memories-of-mom.html

A lot of sheet music sold. 17 pieces of sheet music in a single day from the downloadable sight: "Fisher's Hornpipe" for string quartet! Some of you may recall I recorded that with Alison Krauss. "Amazing Grace" in F. And there is my version of "The Star Spangled Banner" (requires some technique). And there is the Book VI (featuring all 8 of my caprices) as part of the O'Connor Method (advanced). Now that's pretty cool. People going for it! And three different versions of "Appalachia Waltz". Get this sheet music and a lot more at: /sheet-music-downloads