Mercersburg Area Community Chorus

Richard Rotz

Artistic Director

Richard Rotz has directed the Chorus since 1976. Until his retirement in 2020, he was the Director of Music at the Mercersburg Academy where he conducted the Concert Band, Octet, and Percussion Ensemble. He holds a B.S. in music from Lebanon Valley College, and an M.M. from the University of Michigan. Richard is a member of the Music Educators National Conference and the American Choral Directors Association.

Locally, Richard is a member of the McConnellsburg United Presbyterian Church where he serves as choir director. Past civic responsibilities include positions on the Mercersburg Town Council and the Fulton County Medical Center board of directors.

Dr. Mark Hartman

Conductor

Assistant Professor of Music and Director of the Orchestra at Shippensburg University, Mark Hartman holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance and the Master of Music degree in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studied violin with Katie Lansdale and Rochelle Huang. Earlier studies were with Vartan Manoogian and Elaine Richey at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He has also studied Suzuki Pedagogy with William Starr and has done post-doctoral studies in violin literature and pedagogy with Charles Castleman at the Eastman School of Music, Burton Kaplan of the Manhattan School of Music and baroque performance practice with Stanley Ritchie at Indiana University. He has been Concertmaster of the Southern Tier (New York) and the Oskaloosa (Iowa) Symphonies, Assistant Concertmaster of the Salisbury (North Carolina) Symphony and a member of the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad and the Greensboro Symphonies. In addition, since 1993 he has been a regular performer at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and recently joined the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra and the Gettysburg Chamber orchestra. He has performed solo and chamber music in the United States and Europe and has been featured on North Carolina public radio.

Dr. Hartman has taught at Central College, Houghton College, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina State University, and the Winston-Salem public schools. He has served as adjudicator for the North Carolina Music Teachers Association and the South Carolina Symphony League, several times for the Jefferson High School Invitational in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and as guest conductor for the Des Moines regional middle school festival.

In addition to having a strong background in violin, pedagogy, and conducting, Dr. Hartman has also studied jazz pedagogy with Jamey Aebersold and jazz string performance with the Turtle Island String Quartet. Jazz guitar study was with Greg Hyslop in North Carolina. He has performed jazz on both violin and guitar and as a guitarist in the North Carolina based Ron Rudkin Big Band. Dr. Hartman has also performed on mandolin, guitar, and banjo for performances by the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival.