Staff & faculty

Composer and pianist Mark Buller serves as AFA’s Director of Education and Chair of Composition Studies, a role in which he coordinates Engage AFA programs by designing curricula; planning with school administrators, teachers, program partners, and AFA Faculty Teaching Artists; and working to help implement these programs in impactful ways. One successful example of this is AFA’s wide-ranging instruction in composition, which has been adapted for use in nearly a dozen area schools and encompassing all age levels. In addition to this, he created the curriculum for AFA’s middle school Composition Workshop and Composition Boot Camp, both of which take place during the annual Summer Music Festival. He has represented AFA in invited presentations at the Suzuki Convention (2016) and at TMEA (2018, 2023).

Mark’s work as a composer has allowed him to collaborate with performers and organizations around the world. For Houston Grand Opera he has been commissioned to write four operas for the company’s education programming, along with a 16-minute choral work, Overboard, and a dozen art songs. In 2020 he was commissioned along with Charles Anthony Silvestri to write The Passion of St. Cecilia for the 25th anniversary of Houston Chamber Choir. And in 2022, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano premiered a second work written for them. Future and ongoing projects include a 45-minute mass for chorus and orchestra with librettist Leah Lax, a 70-minute opera with librettist Euan Tait, and song cycles for performers around the country.
Mark received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Houston, where he studied with Marcus Maroney and Rob Smith. In addition to his work at AFA, he is on the faculty at Lone Star College and San Jacinto College.

Mark and his wife Esther have one cat, Anya.

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