ABOUT LINDA MARKS:
As a small child, Linda Marks, was passionate about music and felt a magnetic pull to pianos and all things musical. Her first word was piano, and she was placed in a Longy School of Music experimental program for gifted and talented kids at age 3. She started writing music in grammar school, and wrote the 8th grade graduation song. Linda holds a degree in Music with honors and distinction from Yale University, where she co-founded Something Extra, Yale's 3rd women's a capella singing group, as a 17 year old freshman. She ran Café Calhoun at Yale, and both sang and produced musical shows. In the 1980's, Linda performed in the Boston acoustic music scene and sang and co-wrote songs with Lisa Wexler. She appeared on "Music America" with Ron Della Chiesa, and released her first album of original music, "Dreams and Themes" in 1983. She founded and ran the Boston Arts Roundtable, a group of musicians and other artists who gathered for camaraderie and produced multimedia concerts.
Linda found herself in an unanticipated 25 year hiatus from her music career as she raised her now young adult son as a single mom and cared for a mother with Alzheimer’s. Following the internal tug to step back into music in 2008, Linda started singing at the Acton Jazz Cafe, and was fortunate enough to be mentored by the amazing Rebecca Parris. Family matters kept pulling her away until her mother died in 2014. Since that time, she has been embracing her “second time around” as a singer/songwriter/arranger/performer with full passion.
In more recent years, she has sung at the Ryles, Skipjack's, Amazing Things Arts Center, Scullers Jazz Club, The Java Room, Club Passim, L’Aroma Cafe, Club Cafe, the Hearing Room, Grill 37, the Dedham Square Coffeehouse, and many other listening rooms in Eastern Massachusetts and New England. She performs regularly as a duo with guitarist Terry Smith.
Linda hosts a monthly open mic for the Boston Association for Cabaret Artists in Watertown. She has produced and performed at benefit concerts at Scullers for Boys to Men New England, for the late Shirley Lewis, and a Music, Mentoring and Friendraising Gala, benefitting the Shirley Lewis Living the Blues Foundation and the Boston Minstrels, also at Scullers. In October 2014, she created, produced and performed in "Heart to Heart," a cabaret show including original songs and music from Barbra to Bachrach to Broadway to "Begin Again," which was written up in the Boston Globe.
Building musical community and mentoring musicians are two passions for Linda. She has sung with the Boston Minstrels, a volunteer group that brings music to homeless shelters, VA hospitals, prisons and other places where music is too rarely heard and so deeply needed. Linda serves on the Board of the Boston Association for Cabaret Artists and co-produced the BACA 2014 Fundraiser. She has been part of the steering committee that produces the Newton Festival of the Arts since its inception in 2015, and has performed in many events as part of the Festival, including an annual Cabaret Fundraiser for the Newton Festival of the Arts (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), a Singer Showcase in collaboration with the Newton YMCA Center for Creative Arts (2015), events at Artful Pianos (2016, 2017, 2018), and a Singer/Songwriter Showcase (2018). Linda’s original music was included in a 2015 NPR All Things Considered feature on the Newton Festival of the Arts.
Linda has run an intimate concert series, the Music Salon, since 2015 in Waltham, MA, dedicated to building community through music and art. With a commitment to bring live music to new and unconventional venues, she has brought a jazz cafe to both the First Event Conference and the Natural Living Expo.
In April 2018, Linda co-founded an intergenerational artist-alliance group, the Women in Music Gathering, along with social media publicist Cindy D’Adamo and singer/songwriter Colette O’Connor. The group provided a curated musical collection for Rubyfruit Radio, and has performed at the Loop at the Armory in Somerville, and at a showcase at the Burren in November, 2018.
Linda has recorded five albums with Doug Hammer at his Dreamworld Studio: Heart to Heart (2015); Coming Full Circle (2016); Say Yes To Love (2017); Singer/Songwriter (2017); and Moments (2018), and is working on a sixth, In Grace which will be released in 2019. Linda has performed at Boston top jazz and folks venues (Scullers Jazz Club and Club Passim). Her single, “The Lion” (release date: 7/1/18) was covered by the Indie Source and MobYorkCity. Her single, “Enough” (release date: 08/12/18), was covered by Hollywood Digest and the Boston Globe. Linda has appeared on many local and national radio and television shows including Talk ’N Tunes, The Wimmin’s Show, The Spotlight, Independent Corner on Cygnus Radio, Citywide Blackout, Under the Covers, and the Big Jazz Umbrella.
Linda was nominated for best USA Solo Act in 2018 by PureMezine. Linda is a LadyLake Artist.
Linda is grateful for the coaching work of Rebecca Parris, who has helped her reclaim the power of her own voice, Sandi Hammond, who helped her optimize her vocal performance, John O’Neil, whose gift for the theatrical aspect of Cabaret performance is inspired, and the team of Faith Prince and Natasha House, for the eagles eye view of the entire artistic and performance process.
Linda leads workshops on the Power of Voice, coaching musicians to embody their music and sing from the heart, building on her nearly 30 year career as a heart-centered body psychotherapist. She loves to arrange music and help other musicians with arrangements and album production. Linda is a heart specialist, working with the relationship of the emotional heart to the physical heart. You can learn more about her mind-body therapy and coaching at www.healingheartpower.com.
Linda holds degrees from Yale and MIT and is the author of Living With Vision (Knowledge Systems, 1988), and Healing the War Between The Genders (Heart Power Press, 2004).
