Dr. Mark Statler is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Tennessee at Martin where he conducts the University Singers and New Pacer Singers and teaches choral music education courses. He and his wife, Audrey, have three children: Mattie, Eliana, and Sam. Mark grew up in the cornfields of Rochester, Indiana before graduating from Taylor University with a music education degree in 2010 and teaching general music at Center Grove Elementary School in Greenwood, Indiana. Mark then moved to Kenya in 2011 to direct the middle school and high school choral program at Rosslyn Academy, an international school in the capital city of Nairobi. In addition to teaching, he had the joy of being a part of the classical music scene by conducting the Nairobi Music Society and the Nairobi Orchestra in choral/symphonic works and singing and conducting the Greenwood Singers chamber choir. In 2018, the Statler family moved back to the U.S. where Mark studied choral conducting at Bowling Green State University, graduating with his master’s degree in 2020. Continuing his studies at Ball State University, he graduated as a Doctor of Arts in Music in 2023 with a primary focus in choral conducting and a secondary focus in music education. During this time he worked as an adjunct professor, conducting the Taylor University Women’s Chorus and mentoring working music educators in the online master’s program at Bowling Green State University. The choral music of Florence B. Price (1887-1953) was the focus of his dissertation lecture recital and he continues to research, perform, and present these artistic and important under-performed works.