Mark Sherman is a Yamaha Performing Artist and has performed for some of the world’s top orchestral conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, and Herbert Von Karajan, and in jazz as a leader and sideman with Kenny Barron, Peggy Lee, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Larry Coryell, and many more. He worked in Broadway musicals, and has been one of the most in-demand studio musicians, appearing on more than two dozen film scores and Broadway soundtracks. He has worked as a sideman for pop artists Michael Bolton, Natalie Cole, and Michael McDonald. Sherman’s song “Changes in My Life” became a viral hit in Asia with YouTube videos that have earned more than 170 million views.
He has been teaching jazz studies at the Juilliard School for 17 years. He produces records under his Miles High Records label and publishes music books through his Miles High Music Books subsidiary.
Sherman attended The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan in 1975, where he met and performed with many future Jazz musicians including Marcus Miller, Bob Franceschini, Kenny Washington, Omar Hakim, and Bobby Broom. He went on to study classical percussion at Juilliard under Saul Goodman, who played in the New York Philharmonic for 50 years. Sherman also studied with Elvin Jones, Justin Diciocco, Roland Hanna, Jaki Byard, Buster Bailey, and Rohland Kohloff.
He spent a lot of his time in the studio in the 1980s and 90’s working on commercial jingles. Pianist Mike Renzi took him under his wing, connecting him with Peggy Lee and other singers. Sherman performed with Lee, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Lena Horne, and Ruth Brown. In1986 Sherman signed to Columbia Records and released his major label debut, A New Balance.
Sherman continued to perform with Peggy Lee in the early 1990s, appearing on albums by Lee in 1990 and 1993. He also began a seven-year playing relationship with Larry Coryell, producing and performing on Coryell’s albums I’ll Be Over You (1994) and Sketches of Coryell (1996).
In 1997, Sherman reemerged as a leader playing vibraphone. He also formed Miles High Records. He has released 22 recordings as a leader with more than 100 original songs recorded and published, and has played us a side man on over 150 recordings.
Today Sherman continues to record, produce, teach, and tour globally extending his voice as a vibraphonist and pianist.