A native of Easton, Pennsylvania and graduate of Westminster Choir College and the Eastman School of Music, Mark Laubach’s organ teachers have included J. Clinton Miller, George Markey, Donald McDonald, and David Craighead. In 1984, he was the recipient of a one-year appointment as Fellow in Church Music at Washington National Cathedral, serving as an apprentice to Richard Wayne Dirksen and Douglas Major.
Since winning first prize in the 1984 American Guild of Organists (AGO) National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance, Mr. Laubach has been known and respected throughout the USA and abroad as a brilliant recitalist with unique gifts in programming, registration, virtuosity, and expressive nuance. He has performed in notable concert venues in the USA (including the Riverside Church in New York City, the Cadet Chapel at West Point Military Academy, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and the Methuen Memorial Music Hall) and in Great Britain (including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and King’s College Chapel in Cambridge). In June 2007, Mr. Laubach toured and performed with choirs from Marywood University and Wyoming Seminary in various cities and towns in Germany, including the town of Laubach. He has played and lectured for national and regional gatherings of the AGO and the Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM).
In May of 2006, Mr. Laubach was invited to perform with Ann Labounsky and Diane Belcher, two fellow former students of David Craighead, in a gala recital and reception in Philadelphia to honor Dr. Craighead, Professor Emeritus of Organ at the Eastman School of Music. Later in June, he participated in another collaborative recital with J. Melvin Butler and Michael Kleinschmidt at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, a featured event of the 2006 National Conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians.
Mark Laubach has recorded three compact discs, Teutonic Titanics, Frenchfest, and Mosaics in Sound, all on the Pro Organo label. Mosaics in Sound was recorded in December 2006 on the Berghaus organ at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, where he has served as Organist and Choirmaster for the past twenty-two years. The CD, which was released in the spring of 2007 and has received rave reviews, includes works by John Cook, Horatio Parker, Leo Sowerby, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, Derek Bourgeois, Marcel Dupré, Joseph Bonnet, and Olivier Messiaen.
Mr. Laubach also continues a busy schedule of teaching, and serves as Adjunct Instructor of Organ and Church Music at Marywood University in Scranton, PA. Several of his students have distinguished themselves in competitions, continuing studies, and as church musicians in posts around the country. He has served as a faculty member for Pipe Organ Encounters sponsored by the AGO and as an adjudicator for numerous organ competitions. He often presents master classes, hymn festivals, and workshops for AGO chapters and churches, featuring topics that include liturgical planning, hymnody, basic improvisation, pastoral care through music, and service playing skills.
Mr. Laubach is a member of the Commission on Liturgy and Music for the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, a past regional chairman of AAM, currently serves as Dean of the Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter of the AGO, and is an affiliated member of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) in America.