Mark Narins has been teaching and coaching voice for over fifteen years. This interest grew out of a life long passion for the great singers of the past, most prominently the voice of Enrico Caruso, and his work as both an opera conductor and opera chorus trainer. It was in the capacity of Music Director of the Oakland Opera that Mr. Narins began to develop his own voice under the guidance of Claude Heater, late in life at the age of 39. At that point Mr. Narins was an accomplished conductor, pianist and trombonist but a complete non-singer. Mr. Heater introduced Mr. Narins to the concepts of voice teacher-scientist Douglas Stanley. Mr. Heater was the first teacher to introduce the idea that a person with a very ordinary or even highly constricted voice (as was the case with Mr. Narins' voice) could develop a rich, warm even heroic voice if he could learn to progressively open the throat and keep it open under the stresses of singing. Opening the throat was accomplished primarily with a lowered larynx position coupled with a raised tongue. In addition Mr. Heater demonstrated a diaphragm pulsing technique that was capable of supporting 100% of the vocal tone without any constriction of the abdomen, chest or throat. Using these techniques Mr. Narins developed a large high baritone voice and made an operatic debut as Monterone in Musica Dolce's production of Verdi's Rigoletto, under the baton of Jim Sullivan.

After experiencing that his voice became too heavy in performance and fatigued easily Mr. Narins began to study with lyric tenor Richard Riley whose specialty was the exploration and opening of head voice. Mr. Riley's own studies have progressed much farther than the normal development of the nasal pharynx and indeed, have explored all of the spaces of the cranium and how they can be used to resonate the voice. This technique added brightness and ring to Mr. Narins' voice and enabled him to sing with much more assurance and much less fatigue. After studying with Mr. Riley for just a short time Mr. Narins won the part of "The Bonze" in Puccini's Madame Butterfly in the 1997 North Bay Opera production conducted by Phil Kutner and directed by Ross Halper.

In the past Mr. Narins' voice has undergone an exciting change from baritone to tenor still under the tutelage of Richard Riley. The natural high tones Mr. Narins produced as a baritone have developed in to the necessary As, Bbs and B naturals of a tenor. More important however is that through the Riley Bel Canto studies Mr. Narins can maintain and sound natural in the higher tenor range. The main point of this vocal biography is to demonstrate that even voices with little apparent potential as was the case with Mr. Narins' voice, can develop into good or even professional quality voice with the right training and a great deal of patient desire.

Mr. Narins' chief musical pursuit was as an orchestral and opera conductor. Most recently Mark Narins founded City Opera of San Francisco and conducted it from 1997-99. City Opera of San Francisco presented an acclaimed production of Leos Janacek's Jenufa with a distinguished local cast. Prior to founding the City Opera of San Francisco, Mr. Narins was the Artistic and Music Director of the Oakland Lyric Opera. Under Mr. Narins' leadership this opera company mounted its largest and most successful productions to date, including Puccini's verismo masterpiece Il Tabarro. Also for this company Mr. Narins was directly responsible for the conception and founding of the Opera Orchestra Training Institute, which resulted in a full 50 piece orchestra comprised of talented conservatory students, with several experienced professional musicians serving as faculty within the orchestra.

Mr. Narins also served as the music director of the former Oakland Opera from 1987 - 90 under general director Claude Heater, formerly an internationally known heldentenor. During this period Mr. Narins conducted an acclaimed performance of Verdi's La Traviata with a national cast. He completely rebuilt the Oakland Opera chorus into a powerful 45 voice instrument that was the best opera chorus in the Bay Area save that of the San Francisco Opera. The chorus was credited as one of the main factors in the stunning success of Oakland Opera's Carmen. Mr. Narins also conducted Puccini's Gianni Schicchi with Opertif in San Francisco. He began his operatic career as assistant conductor and chorus master of the nationally known Arizona Opera, preparing productions of Verdi's Otello and Il Trovatore. As a symphonic conductor, Mr. Narins founded and for six seasons conducted Orchestai-Arizona's Touring Orchestra-a 50 piece professional orchestra which gave innovative symphonic concerts comprised of classical and popular music in Southern Arizona. His professional debut was with the Arizona Orchestra, a 100 piece festival orchestra comprised of the best members of the Tucson and Phoenix symphony orchestras.

Educated at the Mannes School of Music, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Arizona, Mr. Narins has studied under distinguished conductors and teachers including Sixten Ehrling, Golfredo Corradetti, Boris Goldovsky, Walter Hendl, Willis Page and Henry Johnson. He served as assistant to internationally known Swedish conductor Sixten Ehrling (former conductor of the Detroit Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera) at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in an important revival of Carl Nielsen's Saul and David. Mr. Narins was one of only three conductors chosen nationally by the famous opera impresario and innovator, Boris Goldovsky, to conduct at the Goldovsky Cedardell Opera Festival. He also was chosen nationally to participate in the Third International Conductor's Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where he first worked with Maestro Ehrling. In San Francisco, Mr. Narins studied the Italian style with Maestro Golfredo Corradetti, himself a student of Arturo Toscanini, and co-conducted multiple performances of a well-reviewed production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.