Advanced Simply Music Teacher

Completed the requirements to achieve the status of Advanced Simply Music Teacher, teaching this revolutionary, Australian-developed piano learning method that offers a breakthrough in music education. This remarkable approach has students of all ages playing great-sounding contemporary, classical, gospel, blues and accompaniment pieces — immediately — from their very first lessons.
Learn more at potluckcreativearts.com.
Simply Music

Accompanist, The Mop & Bucket Company

Provide improvised piano/keyboard accompaniment for improvised theatre/comedy performances.
Musical contributions range from background scoring and scene changes to collaborative improvised songs with actors/singers, including full-length improvised musicals in the long-form Spontaneous Broadway format.
Learn more at potluckcreativearts.com.
The Mop & Bucket Company

Accredited Simply Music Teacher

Completed the accreditation process to become an accredited teacher of Simply Music, a revolutionary, Australian-developed piano learning method that offers a breakthrough in music education. This remarkable approach has students of all ages playing great-sounding contemporary, classical, gospel, blues and accompaniment pieces — immediately — from their very first lessons.
Learn more at potluckcreativearts.com.
Simply Music

Songwriter, Producer, Instrumentalist, Arranger, Engineer; Everybody’s Invited

43 minutes, stereo, CD and MP3. Debut album from The Offhand Band, released by Potluck Creative Arts.
Listen at theoffhandband.com.

Founder, Webmaster; The Offhand Band

  • Founded this music act to create satisfying songs that are cool for kids, fun for families and great for the grown on their own.
  • Webmaster for theoffhandband.com.

Visit The Offhand Band.

Licensed Simply Music Teacher

Completed the training process to become a licensed teacher of Simply Music, a revolutionary, Australian-developed piano learning method that offers a breakthrough in music education. This remarkable approach has students of all ages playing great-sounding contemporary, classical, gospel, blues and accompaniment pieces — immediately — from their very first lessons.
Learn more at potluckcreativearts.com.
Simply Music

Developed new music, arts and creativity services

Developed innovative Songwriting Workshops, Singalong Workshops, Creativity Coaching service and custom songwriting/composition/writing services, most using Appreciative Inquiry to foster collaborative creativity.
Visit Potluck Creative Arts.

Relaunched arts.potluck.com

Relaunched arts.potluck.com, adding services including composition, lyric-writing, musical arrangements and production, as well as writing and directing for motion pictures and theatre.

Founder, Principal, Webmaster; Potluck Creative Arts

Potluck Creative Arts, Red Hook, NY

  • Promoting my activities as a musician, songwriter, composer, lyricist, arranger, music producer, pianist/keyboardist, music/arts/creativity educator/facilitator and writer/director for motion pictures and theatre.
  • Services offered include Songwriting Workshops; Singalong Workshops; Custom Songs; Custom Instrumentals; Custom Writing; Creativity Coaching; Music Lessons; Piano/Keyboard Performance; Musical Arrangements and Production; Directing for Motion Pictures and Theatre.
  • Webmaster for potluckcreativearts.com.

Visit Potluck Creative Arts.

Founder, Principal, Webmaster; Potluck Arts

  • Created this business to promote my arts performances and educational efforts, including concerts, singalongs and music lessons.
  • Webmaster for arts.potluck.com, using custom HTML programming.

Multiple honors, 11th Annual Billboard Magazine Songwriting Contest

  • The Fall of the Roxy Usher, Music and Lyrics by Mark S. Meritt: Honorable Mention certificate and Top 500 prize.
  • Someone Duplicated the Key to My Heart, Music and Lyrics by Mark S. Meritt: Honorable Mention certificate and Top 500 prize.
  • Falling into the Sun; Music by Mark S. Meritt, Lyrics by Richard Hack and Mark S. Meritt: Honorable Mention certificate.

Listen and read at potluck.com.

Pianist, Lara Spencer’s wedding dance, Good Morning America

I was invited to provide live, original accompaniment for Lara Spencer and her dance instructor as part of her series documenting the planning of her wedding.
Listen and see photos at potluck.com.
Good Morning America

Pianist, Rosie’s Christmas Carol Challenge, Good Morning America

Rosie O’Donnell played “name that tune” with me performing snippets of Christmas songs and Rosie having to guess as many as she could in one minute.
See photos at potluck.com.
Good Morning America

Co-Creator, Composer; The Unexplainable Bonefish

A proposed television series in which host Dr. Wiley Bonefish and a crew of puppet lab assistants would humorously help kids explore paranormal science using the scientific method.
Listen and read at potluck.com.

Composer, Co-Lyricist, Co-Librettist; The Right Circles

  • Scheming Broadway writers make fun of avant garde theatre, but what goes around comes around.
  • Represented by the Farber Literary Agency, New York, NY, 1994-1996.

Listen and read at potluck.com.

Screenwriter, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Sound, Composer; Gratuitous Violence

  • A spoof of Hollywood spy movies.
  • Created for Introduction to Filmmaking class, Department of Theatre Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
  • Premiere screening in the Willard Strait Theatre, Willard Strait Hall, May 10, 1992.
  • 17 minutes, b/w, 16mm.

Watch and listen at potluck.com.
Cornell University
Department of Theatre, Film and Dance

Composer, Co-Lyricist, Co-Librettist, Orchestrator, Director, Musical Director; Cupid’s Arrow

  • A hip immortal helps college students find love.
  • Produced by the Masque and Mime Society, Roy C. Ketcham High School, Wappingers Falls, NY.

Watch, listen and read at potluck.com.
Masque and Mime Society
Roy C. Ketcham High School