Mark Dancigers is a composer of music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, ballet and contemporary dance, and is the electric guitarist for the chamber music group NOW Ensemble. His works for dance have included “Bright” for the New York City Ballet with choreographer Justin Peck, “The Last Time This Ended” for BalletCollective with choreographer Troy Schumacher, and “Jehanne” and “Dreamfall” with choreographers Leymis Bolaños Wilmott, Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers, and Sarasota Contemporary Dance. Dancigers’s scores have been heard at the Sundance Film Festival, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; in Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Australia; at New York City Center and Carnegie Hall. Orchestral performances have included the Alabama Symphony, the Thunder Bay Philharmonic, and the Cabrillo Festival. His music is recorded on seven albums released on the New Amsterdam label by artists including yMusic and Michi Wiancko. As an album producer, his credits include pianist Michael Mizrahi's “Dreamspace”, "Currents" and "The Bright Motion".
His new project is Grand Electric, a duo of electric guitar and piano with accomplished pianist Aaron Wunsch. Grand Electric’s debut album Dawn is available on Bright Shiny Things. Dawn was composed as an inception, an initiation into original musical realms. From the opening notes of Aurora, through the dynamic vigor of Take Chants, to the contemplative expansiveness of Image and Gravity, each piece on Dawn reflects Grand Electric’s creative journey.
Dancigers has helped bring the electric guitar into new contexts in chamber music through his work with NOW Ensemble. NOW Ensemble has premiered over 100 works and championed music of composers such as Judd Greenstein, Missy Mazzoli, Sean Friar, Nico Muhly, Patrick Burke, Emily Pinkerton,, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and many others. With NOW Ensemble Dancigers has performed at the LA Opera, Peak Performances, the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. NOW Ensemble has taught in residencies and workshops at universities including Princeton, the University of Southern California, UCLA, and the University of Texas at Austin, and performed collaboratively with Roomful of Teeth, clarinetist David Krakauer, the electronic musician Dan Deacon, and indie rock band San Fermin.
Dancigers studied music composition at Yale, the Yale School of Music, and Princeton University under Kathryn Alexander, Matthew Suttor, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Paul Lansky, and Steven Mackey. He has taught as faculty at Yale, the University of Redlands School of Music, and is currently Assistant Professor at New College of Florida. At New College, he directed New Music New College from 2020-2022, presenting concerts by MacArthur Fellows, performances with New College students and members of the Sarasota Orchestra, jazz and improvised music, and performers such as the Jack Quartet and Vicky Chow.
