Mark Bailey is a recognized expert in Slavic sacred music. He has been the artistic director for the Yale Russian Chorus (YRC) since 1995 and has also served as music director of the New Haven Oratorio Choir and the Westchester Concert Singers. He is a faculty member at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary in Crestwood, New York and leads seminars and publishes work relating to Orthodox liturgical music. In addition to directing the YRC at Yale, he serves as a research associate for the university and is a Fellow and Faculty Freshman Advisor at Yale's Davenport College.
Bailey's work with the YRC is documented on Chants and Carols, an internationally released recording that was placed on The New York Times "Critic's Choice list" in 1996, and recommended as a "must have" by National Public Radio's Performance Today and Billboard magazine, among others. He has also conducted on gala performances at Carnegie Hall, receiving praise from The New York Times critic Bernard Holland. Mr. Bailey has also been noted by the New York Times as a leading expert in the field of Slavic sacred music, a topic on which he frequently lectures throughout the country, including at Lincoln Center and at several prominent universities and institutions.
As a composer, Bailey has created dozens of compositions and arrangements of Orthodox liturgical music. His works have premiered at Lincoln Center, Yale University, Emmanuel Church in Boston, and Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. He is co-founder of the Benchmark Performance Series on Cape Cod and created the annual Slavic Choral Festival at Yale. His music performance degrees were earned at the Eastman School of Music (1984), and the Yale School of Music/Yale Institute of Sacred Music (1989), where he also studied liturgy and Russian. His former teachers include Aidan Kavanagh (liturgy), Marguerite Brooks, Harold Farberman, and David Effron.