Firebird

After taking a degree at the Eastman School of Music, Mark Lopeman (saxophone) went on the road with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra before moving to New York in 1981, whereupon he continued his "road" career in Broadway show troupes of "Annie" and "On Your Toes" and played a brief stint on lead tenor with Woody Herman before joining the Buddy Rich band on lead alto (1983-84). While he was with Rich the band also backed up Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme.

 

Since 1984 he has been a member (most of the time) of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, a band devoted to jazz and big band music of the 1920s and 30s ("and sometimes the 40s"), with whom he has contributed to several movie soundtracks. In 1992, he toured briefly with Gerry Mulligan's "Rebirth of the Cool" band and he has also played with bands led by Toshiko Akiyoshi, Loren Schoenberg and Mel Lewis. Until recently he was a practicing attorney with a small law firm. Now Mark is busy playing and writing music fulltime.