Las Vegas native Mark Ortwein joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Bassoon and Contra Bassoon in 2002. Prior to that, Mark was a member of the United States Air Force Band for eight years, and performed with many orchestras around the nation including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, Las Vegas Symphony, and Cincinnati Pops.
Mark was exposed to music from an early age, developing a love of both classical and jazz styles. He began his studies on piano at age 8, switching to saxophone at age 10. At age 14 he added the bassoon then clarinet and flute.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Boston University where he studied with Matthew Ruggiero, after spending two years at Loyola University of New Orleans working with saxophonist Paul McGinley and bassoonist Crawford Best. He later earned his master’s degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, studying with William Winstead. In 2003, Mark played John Williams’s Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra with Williams conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Since then, He has played it several times with different orchestras.
When not onstage with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mark performs as a member of a number of other musical groups including the Ortwein JazzTet, Circle City Winds, and his as well as numerous recording projects.Ortwein has two albums of his own – one Jazz based album, It Was Time and a classically based album, Stretching Boundaries.
Mark is also Professor of Bassoon and teaches the Woodwinds Methods class at the University of Indianapolis. He also has designed parts for bassoon and saxophone and markets them under the Ortwein Woodwinds brand.