On Sunday, Apr. 21, Mark Hartman took his final bow on the Luhrs Performing Arts Center stage after 16 years of teaching, conducting and serving at Shippensburg University.

Hartman has been a professor of music and the director of the University-Community Orchestra at Shippensburg University since 2008. Hartman has been no stranger to classical music, having taught at three different colleges and even a public school before his 16-year stint at Shippensburg University. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance and a Master of Music degree in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 

Violin in hand, Hartman has taught hundreds of students, performed many orchestral pieces and conducted countless concerts – but don’t let this experience fool you. He only began learning violin when he was 17, “very late in life,” according to Hartman.

Prior to that, he had been a rock and roll guitar player. “I was already a guitarist who everybody thought was pretty impressive,” he said. “All my friends in high school, you know, they saw me as a guitarist, and the only thing I thought was ‘What am I going to do? Am I going to play in bar bands?’’’
 

Despite protests from everyone he knew, he started learning violin at 17 years old. 

There were very few college programs with guitar majors when he graduated from high school in 1974. He began studying at Goshen College in Indiana, flipping back and forth between wanting to study violin or guitar. 

When he went to talk to the guitar teacher about this decision, thinking he should switch to guitar, the teacher said, “No, what you do now is a different instrument from classical guitar, so just keep doing violin.” And so he did.

He kept at it, graduated from college, and married his wife before they both moved to North Carolina to study at the North Carolina School of the Arts, which is a conservatory. There, they met some incredible people, one of whom was a private teacher Hartman began studying with.

 “[She] was such an amazing person that she put me together and I sort of started to play in local orchestras and things,” Hartman explained. His teacher opened up his eyes to what kind of life he might lead. This, combined with a stint teaching in public schools, led Hartman to pursuing higher education.

After several different opportunities in New York and Iowa, Hartman stumbled across a position close to where he grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and he took it. That’s how he ended up at Shippensburg University.

Fast forward 16 years. The Shippensburg University-Community Orchestra presented its spring concert: Natural Wonders, including music inspired by nature by Grieg, Mozart and Strauss. 

“It’s a little surreal. It's always been said that students do our music for the right reasons, too. They're not doing it just to get to a career,” Hartman said of performing his last concert with Shippensburg University. “And so, I mean, this, this orchestra on Sunday, I mean, I had students who were standing, you know, sitting up there, right there with professionals holding their own, and I am so proud of them.”

While this concert marks the final appearance of Mark Hartman as the director of Shippensburg University-Community Orchestra, this does not end his passion for music. Hartman will continue to perform as a violinist and guitarist while also assuming the position of conductor of the Mercersburg Community Choir and Orchestra. 

As for the future of the SU Community Orchestra, Hartman said that he understands administration intends to hire a half-time person. “Nevertheless, at least in this current sort of shrinking environment,” Hartman continued, “the idea that they’re not going to can it is encouraging, although nothing is sure until it’s official.” 

Hartman is waiting for the approval from administration to go ahead with a search to fill the position. “I really want my students to continue to play, and they’ve asked me, ‘Will it be here?’ I hope so. That’s all I can say.”

For Hartman, the arts are important to a university. “Not just the performing arts, the gallery up there, we’ve got some great visual artists, but we have to make a priority to keep the arts going,” Hartman said.

“Don’t forget the arts.”

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