Dunn’s adventurous meanderings took him to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama as well as many of the islands throughout the Caribbean. His first two trips each lasted six months and then he decided to make Costa Rica his second home. He bought a house there and splits his time between Florida, Costa Rica and Brazil. He performs regularly in all three countries.

RETURN TO PEACE offers the softer side of Dunn’s contemporary instrumental music (a cross between new age and Celtic with hints of Renaissance/Olde English, jazz and world music gently mixed in). But the pianist also performs jazz in concert regularly (originals and traditional standards) and has a previous album, simply titled MARK DUNN, that is strictly jazz. He is currently recording a Brazilian-jazz album in Rio de Janero with musicians there.

Dunn has Irish music in his blood. His Dunn grandparents were born in Ireland and his grandfather was a musician. Mark’s uncle also was a Celtic musician (with his own radio show in Philadelphia) who played fiddle, bagpipes and pennywhistle. But Mark’s love of Celtic music began in earnest when he was in his early-twenties, just out of college, and he heard two syndicated radio shows featuring Irish music, “Thistle and Shamrock” and “The Unicorn.” Already a pianist, Mark immediately bought and learned to play a pennywhistle, which is a simple Irish flute or fife that has a mouthpiece like a recorder or whistle and only plays a single major scale using six fingerholes. “The sound of it just connected with my soul.”

One of the compositions most inspired by his Central America journey is “Tegucigalpa,” named after the capital of Honduras where it was written. Dunn was there a couple of weeks before the hurricanes and mud-slides wrecked havoc a few years ago, and when he returned afterwards, many of the friends he had made were gone. While he was there he also wrote “Don’t Cry Paola” for a former girlfriend whose life was in terrible turmoil. “Cahuita” was written at a small town with that name on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica where you wake each morning to the sound of howler monkeys (listen closely at the beginning of the tune). Most of the inhabitants are descendants of slaves brought from Africa to work the banana plantations. “The music there is oldtime Caribbean rhythms, but as I listened I could hear in my head how that music would sound with a Celtic melody running through it.”

Dunn, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, climbed up on the piano stool when he was three-years-old and started making up tunes on the family piano. He began formal lessons at age seven. “I played the piano constantly, but practicing lessons was torture.” His father took him to concerts (such as Ray Charles). Mark became serious about composing in the sixth grade and that year was chosen by the principal to perform at the graduation ceremonies. When Mark was 12, he won a national talent contest, received free acting lessons, and was cast in the TV mini-series “George Washington” with Barry Bostwick and Patty Duke. Mark studied classical music at the Bryn Maur Conservatory of Music. At 15 he began studying jazz harmony and improvisation under Jimmy Amadie, who had played with Woody Herman and Mel Torme, and whose unique method of improvisation is taught at universities around the world. In high school Dunn formed a jazz band, Slice of Orange, with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel (who went on to play with Gary Burton and Paul Motion) and drummer Steve Wolfe (who later worked with Grover Washington Jr. and Annie Lennox).

Dunn also played in a blues band with David Copa (now an internationally-known guitarist), took music courses at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, played in jazz bands throughout the area, taught piano at a music school, got a license to fly private planes, sold real estate, performed on cruise ships throughout the Caribbean, and taught English at two small Catholic schools in Costa Rica.

Two of Mark’s earliest musical influences were the groups Yes and Steely Dan, but during his teenage years he began to appreciate contemporary jazz acts ranging from Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays to Spyro Gyra and Jean-Luc Ponty. Soon Dunn began to explore more traditional jazz such as Bill Evans, Sonny Clark, Tommy Flanagan, Charlie Parker, John Coltraine and Sonny Rollins. Dunn began composing new age music at an early age and later turned on to George Winston, William Ackerman, Tangerine Dream and Kitaro. As Mark’s interest in Celtic music grew, he became a fan of The Chieftains and pennywhistle player Mary Bergin. Dunn also admires composers such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, John Williams, Burt Bacharach and Michel Legrand.

Dunn recorded his first album (self-titled) with some of the top jazz musicians in Philadelphia. Filled with original compositions, the recording got heavy airplay in Dunn’s hometown despite limited distribution at the time.