Mark Joseph Ramírez is Professor of Percussion and Area Coordinator at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Associate Director of the School of Music, and is the Founder and Executive Director of the International Percussion Institute. As an artist, Mark has performed and collaborated under the direction of some of the leading musical authorities in the field of composition, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composers John Corigliano, David Del Tredici and William Bolcom and Prix de Rome recipient Kevin Puts. He has performed with internationally acclaimed jazz and classical artists Ernie Watts, Eddie Daniels, Greg Abate, Jeff Jarvis, Dick Oats, Steve Wiest, Gordon Stout, Phil Smith, and performed as a guest Soloist with the Rio Grande Valley Symphony Orchestra. As a scholar, Mark has received invitations to present and perform at the International Conference on Caribbean Studies, the Southwestern Conference on Latin American Studies, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. In addition, Mark presented a lecture-recital tour of the Pacific Northwest which included performances at Portland State University, University of Oregon, and Western Washington University; served as a Resident Faculty at the International Percussion Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland; and given performances at the IPI Faculty Concert at King's College Chapel in Aberdeen, Scotland. Mark has been a member of the IPI Marimba Competition review panel and a panel member for the IPI Call for Scores. These competitions have developed outreach in composition and performance that included participants from Sweden, Austria, Copenhagen, Belgium, Russian, Portugal, Italy, England, Scotland, Israel, Taiwan, Argentina and the United States. Mark has also been the recipient of a Faculty Fellowship from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, a Faculty Fellowship for Student Academic Success from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and the Kerspit Gent (X, Y)-honor Artist in Residency Fellowship awarded by the Kerspit Foundation. Mark’s Artist in Residency included a three month stay in Gent, Belgium where he collaborated with other Kerspit Artists in Residence, faculty of The Royal Conservatory of Music, the Kunstencentrum Vooruit, and the Academie de Kunstbrug Gent. During that time, he composed and gave international premiere  performances of five new compositions entitled: Ganda, Tabula Rasa, Versplinteren Verhalen, Binnen du Tuin, and Klokken van Begijnhof. Dr. Mark Joseph Ramírez is a native of Brownsville, Texas.