Mark Ross

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR/MUSICIAN Mark Ross first began combining his musical talent and his love of children in the early1980’s at the Rainbow School in State College, PA. Ella Jenkins, Hap Palmer, and Mrs. Patty Hild were his biggest influences. Mrs. Hild encouraged Mark to write songs and use his guitar to teach as well as to entertain. This is what he did for six years, before leaving the classroom behind to spend the next fourteen years as a founding member of Queen Bee and the Blue Hornet Band, a popular blues group that toured the Mid-Atlantic, Europe, and Canada, with whom he wrote and recorded six records. During that time Mark, continued to do his brand of music for kids wherever and whenever possible. If he met preschool teachers at a gig and could make their next morning class – he was there. After becoming a dad, Mark changed careers. He opened a guitar shop, started an amplifier business, and in 1998 accepted a position as the Children’s Music Specialist at the Penn State Child Development Laboratory, where he continues to hone his craft.

Mark received the silver medal for this title at the prestigious 2011 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards in NYC!