Biography
Mark Berman's piano and keyboard playing can be heard on the theme of the HBO series Sex and the City. Berman has written additional music for the program and can be seen on an episode. He has also written music for Bravo, the Food Network, Nurse Jackie, the Showtime series and a variety of network daytime series.
Berman has also appeared on television in The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, as well as on episodes of Royal Pains (season 3) and Sex and the City (he was also the player and keyboard coach behind Nathan Lane's appearance on the show).
Berman has performed with Aretha Franklin, Blood Sweat & Tears, Carole King, Gladys Knight, Hugh Jackman, Illinois Jacquet, Ben E King, Jackie McLean, Cornelius Bumpus, Buster Poindexter, Clark Terry, Leslie Gore, Richie Havens, Helen Reddy, Jennifer Holliday, Phil Ramone, Chita Rivera, Phoebe Snow, and Eartha Kitt.
On Broadway, he conducted Rent, Smokey Joe's Cafe, and Blood Brothers and played lead piano in the orchestras of The Boy From Oz, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, Brooklyn The Musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, 42nd Street, The Life, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and others including the Public Theater of New York's production of Hair in Central Park in 2008 and its Broadway revival in 2009. He has also written additional music, a classical pas-de-deux, for Fame the Musical. He was the assistant music director and pianist for the Broadway production of Bullets Over Broadway.
He is represented off-Broadway by his original music compositions for the acclaimed revival of Sidney Howard's comedy/drama The Late Christopher Bean, directed by Jenn Thompson for TACT. He also music directed, conducted and played piano for the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Seeing Stars, a new musical set in the world of boxing, written by Don and Jeff Breithaupt with a book by Shelley McPherson, also directed by Jenn Thompson.
He has performed in jazz clubs around the world including The Blue Note, Rainbow Room, Birdland, The Cutting Room, B.B. King's, the Supper Club and Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. Berman has appeared at Weil Hall at Carnegie Hall, at Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center, and can be heard on numerous recordings.
At the Westport Country Playhouse, Berman returned to be the music director, lead pianist and the arranger of additional music for Hot n' Cole: A Cole Porter Celebration, directed by Tony Award-winning actor James Naughton. His piano playing was cited as "dazzling" by Variety. Of his arrangement and musical direction of "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" Theatermania wrote, "the entire ensemble is flawless, with the Hi-Lo's-like harmonies a treat Porter himself would have praised."
