Mark Wait has been dean and professor of music at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University since 1993. Prior to that, he was on the faculty of the College of Music at the University of Colorado, where he also served, from 1985-93, as the executive assistant to the chancellor of the Boulder campus and to the president. He currently holds the Martha Rivers Ingram Dean’s Chair at the Blair School.

Wait served as president of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) from 2012 to 2015. He also served on the Board of the Country Music Hall of Fame from 2001 to 2005.

As a concert pianist, Wait has presented more than 200 concerts in 25 states. In 1989, he was the pianist in a performance at Alice Tully Hall of Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto for Piano, Harpsichord, and Two Chamber Orchestras, conducted by Robert Craft. As part of Robert Craft’s series of Stravinsky recordings, Wait recorded several solo works, as well as Stravinsky’s Capriccio for piano and orchestra with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Meanwhile, his recording with the Nashville Symphony (Kenneth Schermerhorn conducting) of Elliott Carter’s Piano Concerto was a finalist for a 2004 Grammy in two categories: Best Classical Album and Best Instrumental Solo Performance with Orchestra. Wait and violinist Carolyn Huebl have recorded Alfred Schnittke’s Violin Sonatas and major works for violin and piano by Igor Stravinsky, both on the Naxos label.