15-Year Chorus Member: Mark Weaver
This isn’t the first time the May Festival has written about Mark Weaver, who is celebrating his 15th anniversary of singing with the Chorus. Last time, we put the spotlight on him because his daughter Megan is also a singer in Cincinnati’s Chorus! Here they are together at Music Hall. For the Weavers, the May Festival is definitely a family affair.
Mark first heard the May Festival in concert when his daughters Addie and Megan, as members of the Cincinnati Youth Choir, sang Carmina Burana with the May Festival. About two years later, with the encouragement of his friend and May Festival singer Gerald Shannon, Mark auditioned for the May Festival and ultimately joined in 2006. Since then, he’s found the challenges presented by Bob Porco, director of choruses, are exactly what he had been seeking.
Throughout his life, Mark has been motivated by challenges and competition. He began his musical pursuits as a trumpet player in grade school, participating in marching band, jazz band, and concert band. In high school, he was drawn specifically to the competitive atmosphere of the drum and bugle corps and continued to participate in these ensembles through college. One of his proudest moments occurred in college when his corps won the Class A World Championship title in Philadelphia! And, he definitely remembers travelling to Spain for a week with 250 other broke college students from the University of Minnesota where they were asked to perform for the half-time at a professional soccer match, an unheard of occasion at the time.
It was around this time that Mark attended a wedding in Cincinnati and met a lovely young woman from Northern Kentucky named Jennifer. After a few years of long distance dating, the two were married in 1985 at the Cathedral Basilica in Covington – where the May Festival traditionally performs its April concert. After a few years, Mark and Jennifer Weaver moved from Texas to Cincinnati and settled in Hyde Park, where they still live today. Their adult daughters Addie and Megan have remained in the area too, with Addie in Norwood and Megan in Northside.
Once he and Jennifer had married and settled down, Mark began playing trumpet and singing for his local church at St. Mary’s Parish in Hyde Park. While this was an enjoyable hobby for him, his competitive spirit prompted him to search for more demanding musical repertoire and a challenging director. Enter: the May Festival. Here, he sings with the renowned Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, meeting the high standards of Director Robert Porco, on the historic Music Hall stage.
Traveling with the May Festival has also been a treat for Mark. When the Chorus went to New York City to record the Ordering of Moses at Carnegie Hall in 2014, Mark arrived a little early and decided to take a few moments to visit the Metropolitan Opera. After selecting his souvenir from the gift shop, he went to pay with his Fifth Third bank card when the cashier said, “You must be from Cincinnati. Do you know Bob Porco?” Mark had been in New York City for a mere two hours at this point and had already found another Bob Porco fan! As the conversation progressed, it came about that this young man had been a student at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. It’s clear that Cincinnati is a vital part of the international classical music scene.
In addition singing with the May Festival, Mark also performs with the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Men’s Glee Club, which, as one would imagine, is busy mostly during the month of March. If you can’t catch Mark in a choral performance around town, you might find him at Hixson, where he puts his expertise in architecture and engineering to work every day as a project manager.
Join us in congratulating Mark on a remarkable 15-year membership with the May Festival! Get to know him better by listening to his personal playlist on Spotify.
Interested in joining the May Festival Chorus yourself? Check here for audition information or email Kathryn Zajac Albertson at [email protected].