Mark Perlman

Dr. Mark Perlman is Professor fo Philosophy at Western Oregon University. A Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Arizona, he is the author of several scholarly papers in philosophy as well as a book, entitled "Conceptual Flux: Mental Representation, Misrepresentation, and Concept Change" (Kluwer, 2000), and is co-editor of the book "Functions: New Essays in the Philosophy of Psychology and Biology" (Oxford UP, 2002). His current research includes work in aesthetics of music, and in particular on a philosophical investigation into the nature of orchestral conducting.

He is also an orchestral conductor and bassist, and has been music director and conductor of the Willamette Falls Symphony Orchestra since 2001. He studied at the University of Arizona with Dr. Leonard Pearlman and has been to conducting workshops with Jorma Panula, Markus Lehtinen, Petr Gribanov, Leonid Kochmar, Sian Edwards, Adrian Gnam, Robert Gutter, Oleg Proskurnya, Alexander Polishchuck, Murry Sidlin, Daniel Lewis, Don Thulean, and John Farrer. He won honorable mention in the 2011 International Conducting Workshop and Competition in Macon, Georgia. In 2011 he was also a finalist for the American prize in both orchestral conducting (community orchestra) and programming. He has conducted other orchestras in the Portland area as well as in Arizona and Ohio, and internationally orchestras in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, and Romania.