Mark Landson is a violinist, violist, composer, founder and Director of Open Classical, and the founder of the new classical chamber group Neo Camerata. Based in Dallas, Texas, he has been featured in numerous television and radio interviews and press articles as a prolific contributor to the creative culture of North Texas.  Dallas Observer has featured him in “Top 100 Creatives in Dallas”, and arts magazine TheaterJones featured him in their “Forward Thinkers” arts entrepreneurs series. His new classical compositions have been praised in reviews as “Stravinsky at his most lyrical”, and “a unique combination of pop inspiration and classical craft”. Landson’s stated focus is to take the audience on a journey of emotions through motivic exploration, melding the techniques of classical composition with contemporary pop harmonic language and pacing. Within every context of composition and performance, his mantra is “It’s not the audience’s job to pay attention. It’s the role of the artist to command attention.” Recent commissions include an operetta “Goldilocks” (Dec 2015), ballet “Le Mozart Noir” (Feb 2016), and cello sonata (April 2017). In December, 2016, the first movement of his string quartet “Travels” took first place at the third installment of “The Ear” competition in New York, chosen among 750 overall entries, and 9 final live round contestants.