Profile: Mark Hoover Mark Hoover, SAAS Vocal Music Director, received the 2016 Teacher of the Year Award from the Arts Schools Network (ASN). This annual award recognizes a teacher whose dedication, talent, and achievement are exemplary. The award was presented at ASN’s annual conference October 25-28, 2016, in Dallas, Texas. An ASN represented said, “With a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Washington, Mark brings sophisticated technique to his teaching. But his love of music and his ability to touch the hearts of his students sets him apart. It is a testament to his compassion and dedication to excellence that over thirty percent of the [SAAS] Upper School student body auditions for places in his Vocal Program.” Mark began teaching in 1986 with the Northwest Boy choir. Since being hired as the head of the vocal program at Seattle Academy in 1988, Mark has led and studied vocal jazz with some of the great vocal jazz artists in the U.S. Seattle Academy’s vocal jazz choir, The Onions, has won first prize at the Reno Jazz Festival and the Pacific Jazz Vocal Festival. Under Mark’s program direction, SAAS is now considered one of the top high school Vocal Jazz programs on the West Coast.
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