Mark Daniels, tenor

Mark Daniels is a versatile tenor who hails from Kennebunk, Maine. His early studies were with David Goulet in Portland, Maine, where he made his professional debut as Charlie Dalrymple in Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. Mr. Daniels continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Rita Shane, where he made his Eastman Opera Theatre operatic debut as Sam in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. He performed the role of Ferrando in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte in Urbania, Italy with Benton Hess’s Oberlin in Italy program and again in Buffalo, NY with Buffalo Opera Unlimited.

Other roles have included Danilo in Lehar's The Merry Widow with Buffalo Opera Unlimited, Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore with the Genesee Valley Orchestra and Chorus, and Bingley in the world premiere performance and recording of Amanda Jacobs and Lindsay Warren Baker’s Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Daniels was also the tenor soloist in J.S Bach’s Magnificat with the Finger Lakes Chorale under the direction of John Walker.

Great Lakes Productions created a show around Mark Daniels called “A Tenor,” which he performed for two years throughout upstate New York with “The Tuscan Trio and Two Sopranos.” In 2017, he and accompanist Rob Goodling began a collaboration that has resulted in multiple recitals together in the Rochester and Syracuse areas. Recently they were featured in a Florida recital as part of the Ilse Newell “Forgotten Coast” Performing Arts series. After their performance, one audience member posted the following review: “Having heard many concerts, what immediately grabbed my attention was Mark and Rob’s intimacy with their flawless sense of each other, AND conveying that to their audience. One was caught, drawn in, gathered up and surrounded by the passion of the music…and it is their genius and duality that is the magic.” In January, Mr. Daniels and Mr. Goodling released their first CD recording, The Lyric Tenor in Recital.

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Read more about Mark in the January 2021 issue of 585 Magazine.

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Rob Goodling, pianist

Although his professional career began as a violinist in the Elmira Symphony and Corning Philharmonic orchestras, where he was also the first conductor of the Corning Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the larger part of Rob Goodling’s musical life has been spent coaching, accompanying and training singers. Having taught music history courses at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance for twenty years, Mr. Goodling was previously the vocal music and choral director at Churchville-Chili High School for twenty-eight years. In that capacity, his choirs consistently won state and national honors that resulted in their representation of New York State in international performance tours to Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy (where they sang for his holiness The Pope), Morocco and Spain. Many of his students have gone on to outstanding music careers, most notably soprano super-star Renée Fleming.

Earlier listed in “Who’s Who Among America’s College and University Students,” his name has continued to appear in subsequent editions of “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” M.I.T., SUNY College at Fredonia, and the Wenger Corporation have presented Mr. Goodling with Outstanding Music Educator citations; the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra named him their 1996 Outstanding Choral Director; and he was the first recipient of the Roberts Wesleyan College Outstanding Music Educator award. Mr. Goodling was named an affiliate Professor of Music Education at the Eastman School of Music, where he later served as editor of the opera department’s FEO Newsletter and performed the role of Gad Beck in the Eastman Opera Theatre’s world premiere staging of Jake Heggie’s two-person opera, For a Look or a Touch.

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Read more about Mark and Rob's collaboration in the recent issue of 585 Magazine.