Composer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Sylvester can be seen and heard in many diverse musical settings throughout the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, but he is primarily recognized for his solo acoustic guitar playing and his recent compositions for banjo in small classical chamber ensemble settings. Mark's two solo CDs, New Music for Banjo (2009) and American Gypsy (2003), illustrate his genre-crossing compositional style for both banjo and guitar. New Music for Banjo was recently awarded the 2009 WAMMIE Award for Classical Recording.

In addition to performing as a soloist, Mark plays guitar, banjo and mandolin as a member of Great Noise Ensemble (GNE), a Washington, DC-based new music group, and winner of the 2007 WAMMIE award for Classical Chamber Ensemble. Since it's inception in 2005, GNE has performed at The Kennedy Center, The National Gallery of Art, The Sidney Harman Hall, The Hirshorn Gallery, and the Catholic University of America.

Mark is also active in the Washington area's folk and acoustic music scene. He has earned four WAMMIE nominations (2005 - 2008) for contemporary folk instrumentalist. A sought-after accompanist on guitar, bass, banjo and mandolin, Mark performs and records with many of the area's singer-songwriters, including Verlette Simon, Sense of Wonder, and Australia's Fred Smith. Mark was a member of the avant-folk group, Tree Surgeons, who from 1997 to 2001 appeared at festivals, art galleries, clubs, cafes, bookstores and headlining performances from Massachusetts to Virginia, performing original music from their two CDs, Witness (2000) and Eye of Time (1998).

As a company associate of The Only Animal Theatre Society, Mark has composed and produced full-length scores for two of its largest and most ambitious productions of site-specific theatre: NiX and Other Freds. NiX, Canada's first theatre of ice and snow, was selected by The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee to be a part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. The show ran for five weeks at Lost Lake in Whistler, BC, during the 2010 Olympics. Mark's score for Other Freds was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award, while the production brought The Only Animal an award for "Expanding the Scope of Site Specific Performance".