Mark Panfil is a multi-instrumentalist who has established himself in the Bluegrass world as an accomplished dobro player, a solid banjo player, world-class harmonica player, a versatile piano and accordion player.
Born and raised in Lackawanna, NY (a steel mill town, south of Buffalo) and now lives in Hamburg NY, a southern suburb of Buffalo.
Mark played harmonica walking back and forth from school from the second grade on. He began singing formally in the St. Paul's Men and Boys Choir from age 10 to 18. He began playing five string banjo at 15 in high school. When high school finished, he decided to make music his career by pursuing a degree in Music Education with piano as his primary instrument. While in college, he supported himself by teaching private lessons, recording local jingles, performing in local schools and transcribed songs for local songwriters. It was during this time that he began playing dobro. His first lessons came from Mike Auldridge’s instructional book.
Soon after finishing a Masters in Music degree, he joined the bluegrass band, Creek Bend based in Buffalo NY and recorded five projects with them including two CD’s released nationally on the Copper Creek label.
Mark has been teaching dobro at the Augusta Heritage Workshops in Elkins WV on many levels beginner to advanced since the early 90’s. He has taught the class by himself and with some of the most well known players in the world of resonator guitars including Phil Leadbetter, Rob Ickes and Jerry Douglas. He has also performed on stage as a side man with such players as Bobby Hicks, Mac Wiseman, Chubby Wise and Vassar Clements on banjo and dobro. He has also played with many of the top players in bluegrass today including Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton and Sally Van Meter in workshop concerts. He has an instructional book available from Mel Bay publishing on “Jamming with a Dobro” and has a highly successful DVD on the Murphy Method label.
He has been an instructor in Bluegrass academies in New York and Pennsylvania for over ten years and he has thirty years experience as a public school music teacher in Hamburg NY where he taught music theory, guitar, voice and ran their fiddle clubs and most recently a bluegrass club for middle and high school string musicians.
In the Creek Bend bluegrass band, Mark plays dobro and banjo. In the Emerald Isle Celtic band he plays accordion, pennywhitle and banjo. His diatonic and chromatic harmonica playing is in high demand at several Buffalo recording studios. He has been a featured soloist with the Western New York Children's Choir, Buffalo Choral Arts Society, the Orchard Park Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has served in the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) on the board of directors of the IBMA Foundation and the Bluegrass in the Schools committee.
In 2016, Mark and his brother, Chris were inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. He runs a bluegrass club for Middle and High School string players in Hamburg, NY, the Buffalo Bluegrass Youth Ensemble and plays every first and third Thursday of the month at noon at the Sportsmen's Tavern in Buffalo for a bluegrass lunch.