Mark Hagerling grew up surrounded by classical music and the arts.  His mother was a music teacher.  His father was an artist and an opera singer and they lived close  to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. As a  teen he became involved in  popular music and, at the age of 16, was signed as a recording artist through Terry Knight, the producer of the popular rock group, Grand Funk Railroad.  Paul McCartney, of the Beatles, once commented about one of Mark’s songs, "Sounds like something I would have written".

Mark continued as a songwriter and performing musician for the next 20 years. In 1992 his early interest in classical music was rekindled and he began to fill the gaps in his classical training which had been interrupted when he entered the popular music field.  And so he began the transition from songwriter to composer.  In the years that followed, Mark ventured into many interesting compositional situations including writing music for a ballet production of The Wizard of Oz, custom arranging for some of the top horses in the U.S. in the sport of dressage as well as free-standing music for orchestra and concert band.

Most recently, Mark is scoring music for film, documentaries and TV commercials, his most notable work to date being his recently completed score for the feature film, A Dance for Bethany.

© 2001-2007 by Mark Hagerling All Rights Reserved