Classical Voice with Mark C.

Baritone Mark Cotton possesses a strong, ringing voice and a stage presence that brings his characters to life with great comic and dramatic range. Mark was 15 years old, when he heard a recording of Ezio Pinza singing “Some Enchanted Evening” during a summer school music class in his native Florida, “At that moment, I knew I wanted to be an opera singer,” he says. What followed were recitals and small parts in operas, a s well as a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Central Florida. Mark has performed such roles as Falstaff in Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Germont in La traviata, Valentin in Faust, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Marcello in La bohème, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Silvio in I Pagliacci, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Mark has also demonstrated great flexibility as a musical theater singer as Emile de Becque in South Pacific and Lancelot in Camelot. Comfortable as well on the concert/oratorio stage, he has performed extensive oratorio repertoire to much acclaim. Works include, but not limited to, Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabeus, Bach's St. John Passion, Haydn’s Creation, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Faure’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem.