Mr. Salman is perhaps best known for his expertise on Beethoven, having performed the complete cycle of thirty-two piano sonatas on both coasts. With his New York performances of the sonatas in 1990-91, Mr. Salman joined the ranks of the handful of master pianists to perform the complete cycle — and at the age of twenty-eight, he was one of the youngest. During the 1996-97 season he repeated the Beethoven Cycle in Seattle, co-sponsored by Orchestra Seattle, Sherman Clay Pianos and KING-FM. The performances were repeated in a series of eighteen live broadcasts on KING, the first broadcast performance of the cycle in the northwest, heard by a listening audience of 125,000. An upcoming project is to record the Beethoven sonatas on CD, and his book of commentary and analysis on the Beethoven Sonatas is also forthcoming.

Mr. Salman also regularly presents series of recitals devoted to explorations of the music for piano, often featuring neglected masterpieces, and has performed in Europe and Asia as well as in the United States. In the 1997-98 season, Mr. Salman performed in the Peoples' Republic of China; his appearances included solo recitals, duos with cellist Rajan Krishnaswami and master classes. In 1995 he performed a two concert series in Seattle, "The Unexpected Piano," and in 1991-92 he presented "Three Centuries of Piano Music," three recitals in New York. Mr. Salman is a co-founder of the Delmarva Piano Festival in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which recently completed its seventh season. Other recent and upcoming engagements include solo recitals in the United States and Canada and appearances with the Olympia Symphony, Orchestra Seattle, the Northwest Sinfonietta and the Whatcom Symphony.

Mr. Salman's artistry can be heard on a critically praised Titanic Records CD featuring works by Alkan, Beethoven and Liszt. Upcoming recording projects include CDs of Beethoven Sonatas and a concerto recording with the Northwest Sinfonietta under Maestro Christophe Chagnard. His account of his meetings with and playing for Vladimir Horowitz appears in David Dubal's book, Evenings with Horowitz.

As a winner of the Young Musician's Award, he was presented in his New York debut recital in 1989 at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, which included the New York premieres of three Liszt works. Since then, he has become known for his original artistry, commanding virtuosity, and encyclopedic repertoire. He has performed in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and has been the subject of profiles in the New York Times and Kick magazine. His numerous radio and television appearances include broadcasts on WNCN and WQXR radio in New York, KING-FM and KUOW in Seattle and KBPS in Portland as well as Connecticut Cablevision.

Mark Salman is a native of Connecticut, where he began his studies at the age of eight and made his recital debut at eleven. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he studied with Richard Fabre and Josef Raieff and also counts David Dubal as a significant influence. He previously attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years, where he concentrated on chamber music and composition, studying with the noted composer, John Harbison.

Mr. Salman has opted to avoid the typical competition route to building a career. He strongly believes that the compromises necessary to satisfying the typically conservative, musically stodgy juries are irreconcilable with the risk-taking and freedom necessary to an artistically exciting, communicative performance, and that competitions have led to the efficient, yet emotionally inhibited, cautious playing prevalent today. Mr. Salman's approach has instead been to pursue a series of projects of artistic interest, his inspiration drawn from his interactions with the audience rather than the approval of a jury.

Mr. Salman first appeared with Orchestra Seattle in January of 1996, performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1. Under the sponsorship of OSSCS, he performed the complete Beethoven Sonata Cycle at Shorecrest Performing Arts Center during the 1996-97 season. During the 1997-98 season, he joined Orchestra Seattle for a concert featuring works of Poulenc and Stravinsky. To open the 1999-2000 season, he was featured as soloist in Beethoven's Emperor concerto in Benaroya Hall, and to open the 2001-2002 season he joined Orchestra Seattle for Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2.