A graduate of Laval, Stavanger, and Bishops univeristies in Europe and Canada, Mark Gillespie has been Artistic Manager of YOA Orchestra of the Americas since 2008. In 2010 he co-founded Filarmonica Joven de Colombia, the largest private-sector music initiative in the history of Colombia, financed with a 10 million dollar commitment from the Bolivar Group. Mark has led projects with Gabriela Montero, Joshua Bell, Philip Glass, Valery Gergiev, Helmuth Rilling, Ilya Gringolts, and Paquito D'Rivera, among others. Mark worked previously in the popular music industry as a record producer and song-writer. He spent a year as asistant producer to hit-maker Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, whose songs for artists including Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion have sold more than 250 million copies, ranking him among the world's most successful super-producers with Max Martin, The Neptunes, Timbaland, and John Shanks. Internationally Mark has worked in song productions at Rainbow Studios (Oslo), Victor Studios (Montreal), and Justin Gray's Nucleus (formerly Toronto, now LA). As an academic, Mark has lectured at University of Toronto, University of Oslo, City University of New York, The Swedish Institute of Culture in Paris, Carlton University in Ottawa, Saint John’s University, and University of Rome, among other institutions. He has published articles in Music Theory Review, Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of the Art of Record Production, and other journals. Mark grew up between Southeast Asia and Mclean, Virginia, where he graduated from The Potomac School.