Marko Dreher is currently a faculty member at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists. He is also artistic director of the Burloak Academy of Chamber Music and maintains a large private teaching studio in the Halton Region of Ontario. Previously, Mr. Dreher was on faculty at The Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago for gifted pre-collegiate musicians.
Mr. Dreher spent his formative years studying with renowned pedagogues Almita and Roland Vamos. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M.) and The Cleveland Institute of Music (M.M.).
In 2004, after joining the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago, Mr. Dreher's love for teaching flourished. His students quickly became top prize winners in local, national, and international competitions, including the Lipizer, Cooper, Stradivarius, Stulberg, Sphinx, Canadian Music Competition, Ima Hogg, YoungArts, Ontario Music Festivals Association, Walgreens, MTNA and ASTA.
Mr. Dreher's private students have been accepted at numerous schools including The Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, The Colburn School, The Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory.
Students and chamber ensembles of Mr. Dreher have been featured on many prestigious forums such as National Public Radio's From the Top, NBC National Nightly News, CNN/Essence, the Chinese State Dinner at the White House, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. His students have also appeared in solo concerto performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra and KBS Orchestra.
Mr. Dreher's extensive chamber music resume includes performances with some of the leading musicians of today including Ilya Kaler, Dora Schwarzberg, Anton Sorokov, David Bowlin, Rachel Barton Pine, Claire Chase, Michel Debost, Wendy Warner, Monika Leskovar, Spencer Meyer, and Winston Choi.
Mr. Dreher's passion for chamber music has been central to his teaching. Student ensembles under his tutelage have won gold medals at the National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the St. Paul String Quartet Competition, The Rembrandt Chamber Players Competition, MPrize and The Discover National Chamber Music Competition.
Mr. Dreher currently lives in Oakville, Ontario with his wife and their daughters. Both Marko and his wife Sonya are specialists in Croatian folklore and teach the music and dance traditions of their beloved heritage to children in the Greater Toronto Area. Marko is also sought after as a performer and recording artist of the national Croatian instrument the Tamburica.
