Greg Zelek & Mark Hetzler

Born in Sarasota, Florida in 1968, Mark Hetzler began playing his father’s trombone at the age of twelve. He went on to receive degrees in Music from Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music. Trained as a classical musician, Mark spent 16 seasons as the trombonist of the Empire Brass Quintet, a world-renowned brass chamber ensemble. He was also the Principal Trombone of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops and the Florida Orchestra. Mark has concertized as a soloist and chamber player on five continents, including appearances in 15 countries and throughout the United States. He has produced fifteen recordings (including twelve solo recordings on the Summit record label), featuring classical works, avante-garde, modern and electro-acoustic music, and his own original compositions and arrangements.

Mark has appeared at numerous new music festivals, including the New York Electro-Acoustic Music Festival and the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US (SEAMUS). In 2016, Mark joined a group of classically-trained musicians well-versed in jazz, electronics, prog rock, world music and beyond, to form the eclectic and versatile ensemble Mr. Chair. Winner of the 2021 Wisconsin Area Music Industry Award for Best Jazz Artist, Mr. Chair has performed across the United States, released two recordings (Nebulebula and Better Days), and collaborated with artists, dancers, singers, university Geoscience professor Stephen Meyers and Madison brewer Giant Jones. When he isn’t writing and arranging tunes or exploring collaborative performance opportunities, Mark is teaching music at the Mead Witter School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is the Professor of Trombone and a member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet.

Praised for his “effortless facility on the instrument” (South Florida Classical Review), Greg Zelek is increasingly recognized as one of the most exciting young organists in the American organ scene. Greg has recently been appointed the Principal Organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Curator of the Overture Concert Organ and Series.

In addition to concertizing throughout the United States, Greg regularly performs with orchestras as both a soloist and professional ensemble member. In 2018, Greg was the organist for three performances of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, he performed with the Florida Orchestra and was the featured guest soloist with the Ridgewood Symphony in 2016. Greg was the organist in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2014 production of Faust. He also performed twice that year with the New World Symphony, including in a performance of Lukas Foss’s Phorion under Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2012, Greg played Strauss’s Alpine Symphony with the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall conducted by Semyon Bychkov and performed Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with the Miami Symphony Orchestra in 2011.

As a recital soloist, Greg has performed in many diverse venues throughout the US. Highlights of the 2017-2018 season include recitals at the Organ Historical Society Convention in Minneapolis, the famous Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego, and Overture Center for the Performing Arts in Madison. Greg will also give a performance at the MET Museum in NYC on the historic Appleton Organ, as well as recitals for the Hartford AGO and Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Largo, FL in the Spring. The 2016/17 season included performances at Doc Rando Recital Hall at UNLV, Octave Hall in Macungie, PA, and Denver’s Cathedral of St. John, and a recital with tenor Brandon Snook at Our Lady of Lourdes in Sun City West, AZ. Previously, he performed Cochereau’s Bolero for Organ and Percussion in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, which was broadcast on American Public Media’s radio program Pipedreams, and closed the WQXR Bach Marathon at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, which was streamed live on New York City’s only classical music station. A proponent of new music for the organ, Greg has premiered and performed works by Juilliard composers and faculty, including Wayne Oquin’s Reverie and Samuel Adler’s Partita for Organ, in concerts throughout the country.