A dedicated chamber musician, violist, MARKA GUSTAVSSON has performed in major halls across Europe, Canada, the United States, as well as China, the Philippines, Japan and Israel. She has given master classes and concerts at Yale, Eastman, Indiana University, Northwestern, the Banff Centre, and Cleveland Institute., and as guest-artist, she has been invited to festivals including Skaneateles, Portland, Bard, Mostly Mozart, Bennington, Vancouver, and Newport.  In the New York area, Marka has appeared as guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Robert Sherman’s WQXR’s Showcase, on ABC Sports in the documentary ‘Passion to Play,’ and with the Symphony Space All-Stars. Marka’s interest in new music has led her to work closely with many composers including John Halle, Joan Tower, Kyle Gann, George Tsontakis, David Del Tredici, Martin Bresnick, Harold Farberman, and Tan Dun.

From 1999 until 2014, Marka performed as violist of the Colorado Quartet, touring traditional programs, including cycles of Schubert, Beethoven, and Bartok. The quartet actively commissioned and performed new works of Keith Fitch, Laura Kaminsky, Rob Maggio, and Tamar Muskal, as well as the recording works of veteran American composers Irving Fine, Henry Cowell, Richard Wernick, and Katherine Hoover. Before their retirement in 2014, the Colorado Quartet released the entire Beethoven cycle on Parnassus Records.

Currently Ms Gustavsson holds a faculty position at Bard College where she performs in the Blithewood and Bardian Ensembles, coordinates the chamber music program and serves as Associate Director of the Conservatory.  She has spent the past several summers teaching in Yellow Barn’s Young Artists’ Program, in Putney, VT.

A native of Indiana, Marka earned degrees from Indiana University, Mannes College, and CUNY where her formative teachers included Mimi Zweig, Joseph Gingold, Felix Galimir, Daniel Phillips, and Julius Levine. Since 2006, Marka has lived in Red Hook, NY, hiking and gardening, with her husband, pianist-composer John Halle, her son Benjamin, and dog Russell.