Reviews/Recommendations

Please feel free to add reviews per the email list, or contact me at any time for more information.

Weddings

Louise D:
Mark provided wonderful music for our wedding reception and cocktail hour. He was professional, flexible and easy to work with. We had our wedding on a schooner and he was more than willing to be a part of our unique adventure. Thank you very much for being a part of our wedding ceremony. Everyone truly enjoyed the music you provided, and we appreciate your adventurousness in joining us aboard the Wendameen.

Jocelyne D:
Mark did such a wonderful job at our wedding! He really added a special touch to our ceremony and everyone commented on how beautiful his playing was. Mark was extremely easy to work with and I would recommend him over and over again. If you are looking for an amazing classical guitarist, Mark is your guy!

Wedding Ceremonies

Deb C;
Mark was very easy to work with. He kept good communication with me also. He came very prepared. I will hire him again.

Barbara L:
He was professional, easy to work with, accommodating in every way. Wonderful having him play at the church for our daughter's wedding.

Private Party and Community Events

Carla H:
I cannot say enough good things about Mark. We exchanged early emails to discuss the sort of music desired, and he understood immediately. He arrived promptly and played beautifully throughout the event. Many guests commented later on how well he played and how perfectly the song choices matched the casual afternoon party. I strongly recommend Mark Young.

Steve:
I wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed the music. A lot of guests commented that it set the perfect tone for the evening. Thanks so much for everything.

Mark L:
Mark was great and everyone complimented his music. Thank you.

Cynthia N:
Mark was very easy to work with. He arrived on time, followed through on everything we requested of him, and we received excellent reviews from our guests. We would definitely recommend Mark.

Music / Album Reviews

Ley W:
From the conceptual cover art of the spiral fossilized ammonite shell, resembling a nautilus shell, but anatomically different, belonging to a now-extinct cephalopod, distantly related to present day octopuses and squid, to the beautiful realization of the chronologically-ordered individual classical guitar repertoire pieces of this affecting CD, classical guitarist Mark D. Young has provided the fortunate listener a window into the mysterious and wondrous nature of Nature, Time and Music (sound) as a means of understanding the Universe, Creation. And, perhaps, our place in it.

How is it that nebulae, like the ammonite and nautilus shell, are spirally shaped, galaxies with spiral arms, the Universe all around us in motion---though it appears at rest to us?

And our inner ear, the cochlea, an organ of highly evolved sensitivity, discernment, like the nautilus shell, also spirally shaped?

The ammonite shell also metaphor for the process of continual change, transformation, of life. The animal inhabiting its shell requiring, as it grows, new carapaces to provide sanctuary for the ever-evolving organism.

If we are to grow in auditory discernment of beauty, meaning, our appreciation and understanding of life, and its unfathomable and mysterious beauty, must also grow. In the stunning achievement of this beautiful CD Mark Young has provided us such opportunity.

Spanish Baroque composer Gaspar Sanz's "Pavanas" (1674), the first selection on this CD, is also the earliest chronologically, composed in the late Baroque Renaissance. A deceptively simple, plaintiff and contemplative statement of great eloquence, it leaves a lingering bitter-sweet impression of the fleeting nature of time. And experience. Of life. It's a hauntingly beautiful composition that lingers in mind.

Rick Steves also featured it in his PBS "Travels With Rick Steves" episode on 'Andalucia, Granada and Moorish Spain'. An excellent episode featuring this beautiful and famous composition.

I continually replay its remarkably moving melody and am, nearly 350 years after its composing, greatly moved by the awareness that human sensibility has not changed appreciably since that time. That such depth of feeling and understanding have been the privilege of great composers, artists, in all times. And of most all human beings. Mr. Young provides a window into such sensibility and understanding in his deft and sensitive rendering of this great composition.

Both familiar and unfamiliar compositions are to be found on this nearly 59:37 musical journey through some of the most sublime music ever written for guitar. Indeed, written for any instrument.

There is Johann Sebastian Bach's mysterious, fleeting "Boureé in E minor" (1715). It's a deservedly famous piece which Mr. Young performs flawlessly, with suitably mysterious understanding and grace. He is an artist of uncommon sensibility, skill. And one cannot listen to his performances without marveling at his gifts as an interpretive artist. Mastering the classical guitar requires years of diligent practice. And great skill.

Beethoven's famous "Fur Elise" (1810) is also here, provided a subtle and delicate performance, as I think Beethoven conceived it, for a girl he loved.

Notable compositions by Fernando Sor and Mauro Guiliani are also here, two of the most famous composers for classical guitar. Too, a transcription of Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" (1825) and an arrangement, by John Tavano, of the famous guitar composition, "Malagueña" (1851). Mr. Young provides contemporary compositions of the classical guitar repertoire through to 1962, with Bartolomé Calatayud's "Bulerias" of that year.

Of considerable and appreciable note is the inclusion of an Argentinian tango dance piece, "Farruca-Tango" (1925), by Sophocles Papas, the guitar an eloquent voice for this dynamic and much-loved art form of Argentina. Though Papas was Albanian, he was instrumental in the embrace of the classical guitar in America, in Washington, DC, where he lived. As well in facilitating America's introduction to classical guitar virtuoso, Andreas Segovia, a lifelong friend.

Two dear and beloved compositions for me on this CD are the 'couplet'--- #11, the anonymous "Romance de Amor (1880), and #12, "Lágrima-Adelita" (1882), by Francisco Tárrega.

Why do I call them a 'couplet'? Because they are, to me, coupled in mind by their respective subject--Love--the first a meditation on love and human life, in general, the latter a particular individual's--the composer's, we suspect--experience of love.

They are both deeply moving, as one would expect, in their evocation of this most affecting and transformative human experience. And Mr. Young plays them with discerning understanding, sensitivity, intelligence. Of the two compositions the latter, the more personal, is more deeply affecting to me, though they are both singularly moving pieces and continue to resonate long after audition.

I hope this beautiful and thoughtful collection of some of the greatest musical compositions ever created finds itself into more hands. And ears, hearts, minds. For if you have even the slightest inclination to a love of music, or guitar, in particular, you will, if you bring your full attention to the beauty of these compositions, and their performances here by Mark Young, find yourself listening again and again for the endless delights and revelations such beauty can provide. If we cultivate our understanding of it. And Mark Young is an able guide to that growth, through understanding of the many voices of the classical guitar, an instrument of subtle grace and beauty.

I do not think you will regret that journey. Nor the acquisition of this wonderful CD, a magical vehicle of revelation and discovery.

As a bonus, and as example of the continuity of the art of music, and in particular here, the guitar, Mr. Young performs a medley of modern Popular, or 'Neoclassical'-era, music, the familiar compositions composed/performed by various popular artists between 1972-1984.

Also included is one of Mr. Young's own compositions, "Melodía de Helena" (2019), that holds some unusual and compelling compositional and instrumental surprises that I will let you discover for yourself. If you have heard of the baritone guitar, then you might appreciate the unusually expressive voice of this other 'voice' of the instrument known as 'guitar'.

For others, it will be an aurally rich and suggestive discovery. It is also featured in another composition on this CD. Listen for it.

This is a brilliant CD, the content every bit as rewarding, beautiful as the cover art implies. And as intelligently, ably performed. You should not hesitate to experience it. I consider myself most fortunate for its discovery. And you should, too.

Amazon:
A stunning CD.