Merrill Hall, MU333
Education
- D.Phil. (Historical Musicology), University of Oxford, England
- M.St. (Historical Musicology), University of Oxford, England
- B.M. (Organ), Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y.
Biography
Dana Marsh is professor of music in early music/voice, chair of the Historical Performance Department, and director of the Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Marsh’s musical training began as a boy chorister at St. Thomas Choir School in New York and at Salisbury Cathedral in England. He earned his undergraduate degree in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, with later master’s and doctoral degrees in historical musicology from the University of Oxford.
Prior to his appointment at the Jacobs School in 2014, Marsh taught early music history at Oxford and Cambridge universities, publishing research and review articles through the scholarly presses of each. After completing doctoral studies at Oxford, he served as assistant director of music and director of chapel music at Girton College Cambridge.
Critically acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “an energetic and persuasive conductor” and by The Washington Post as “a superb choral conductor, energetic and precise,” Marsh has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with the London Mozart Players, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, Cappella Romana, the choirs of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and Trinity Wall Street with Trinity Baroque and New York Baroque Incorporated, Magnificat (U.K.), Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, among others.
While residing, working, and studying in the U.K., he founded the ensemble Musica Humana Oxford (2001-08), which toured the U.S. to critical praise (“pleasing to the ear and satisfying to the soul,” Los Angeles Times).
Working as a vocal soloist and consort singer in the U.S. and the U.K. for 16 years (1992–2008), he received critical acclaim: “Marsh gave object lessons in vocal ornamentation as a graceful countertenor” (LA Times), with further plaudits as “a powerful and expressive countertenor” (TheNew York Times). He undertook Bach aria study with the Dutch bass-baritone Max Van Egmond in Amsterdam. He performed with the American Bach Soloists, Concert Royal, New York Collegium (under Gustav Leonhardt), Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, A Cappella Portuguesa, and Brabant Ensemble.
While completing his doctoral research at Oxford, Marsh sang regularly with the Choir of New College, participating in tours and recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and European Union Baroque Orchestra. He recorded 15 discs with New College Choir, one of which won the Gramophone Award for Early Music in 2008.
In 2018, Marsh was appointed artistic director of the Washington Bach Consort, considered to be among the nation’s leading choral and period-instrument ensembles. He programs and oversees three series, which together offer over 25 concerts annually. In late 2019, The Washington Post opined that Marsh “has honed a company that could go head-to-head with period-performance ensembles anywhere.”
Marsh has also served as canon organist and director of music at Christ Church Cathedral Indianapolis. He has prepared ensembles of young singers for concert and recording engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Antonio Pappano. He has recorded in various capacities for Sony, Universal, Avie, Decca, Erato, Koch International Classics, Signum, and Public Radio International.