Mark Pearson

Mark Pearson, a longtime resident of Boston, passed away peacefully at the Golden Living Center - The Elmhurst in Melrose on Thursday, November 5, 2015, at age 85. He was born in Rockford, Illinois on February 16, 1930, one of three sons of the late Irving F. Pearson and Erma E. (Cable) Pearson. He was raised in Rockford and Springfield, Illinois, graduating from Springfield High School. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College and his M.A. in English from Stanford University. After graduating, he moved to Boston to become the summer Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Harvard University, and opened his private voice studio. Mark was a Professor of Voice at New England Conservatory from 1965 until his retirement in 2009. He served as the Chair of the Voice Department from 1971 until 1992. He was a well-known, highly respected and admired teacher of voice and vocal pedagogy. During his tenure, he helped develop the school's first master's degree in vocal pedagogy. Mark was also an accomplished performer both locally and nationally. He performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a bass soloist, with ensembles at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and regularly with the New England Conservatory Orchestra, Chorus and Chamber Singers. He was also a soloist in the U.S. premieres of Ernest Bloch's Macbeth, Britten's Cantata Misericordium, Pinkham's Jonah, and Carl Nielsen's Third Symphony. In England and America, he performed the roles of Sarasoto, Osmin, Arkel, and Mars in Lully's Thésée, and Pangloss in Bernstein's Candide. At the Santa Fe Opera, he was a soloist under Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Douglas Moore. While a distinguished performer, Mark was first and foremost a teacher whose impact professionally and personally spanned over four decades. He often said "I am a teacher who sings, not a singer who teaches." He instructed students who have won major competitions and prizes, including the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in U.S., Canada, and Europe. His students have also sung lead roles in productions in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Vancouver, as well as opera companies in Europe. Many of his students currently teach voice in colleges, conservatories, and universities in the U.S. and Europe. Mark happily shared his varied and deep knowledge of not just music but art, history, movies, and life. His students ultimately became like family, and they continued to visit him into retirement and after moving to Melrose. Beyond his successful career as a professor of voice, Mark had a love of travel especially by train. He had a lifelong fascination with trains and enjoyed watching the fast moving landscape from the window. He loved traveling the country coast to coast and across Canada by train, but his home was Boston. He found great joy in living in the city, walking everywhere, and becoming a part of the local community. Mark Pearson is survived by his brother Kenneth E. Pearson and his wife Suzanne of Houston, TX, and Donald R. Pearson and his wife Sandra of Rockford, Illinois, nephews John, Alan, David and their families. Services are private. Interment in Willwood Cemetery, Rockford, IL. Gifts in honor of Mark may be made to the New England Conservatory, www.necmusic.edu/give-nec.