Birth Of The Heat (Part 1)

Mark Anton Cella was born, Dec 13 1971 in the US Panama Canal zone and raised there until the age of seven as the second son of a devoted Navy Chief Petty Officer. After his father retired from the Navy in 1980 the family settled in the San Diego area.

He grew up listening to almost everything from everywhere; from the world beat and cantus from Panama to the Beach Boys and Bob Marley who were popular with the surf culture he also gravitated in Southern California. He attended UC Santa Barbra after high school and majored in music composition and theory, excelling in both piano and guitar while also performing in several bands in the UCSB college scene.

After graduation, he moved to Chicago in 1992 where he continued his musical studies at Northwestern University and began composing original music for the stage. His work on the Dan Lyle directed "Cicero's Funeral" was well received and led to more composing work in larger productions in Vancouver and Toronto Canada. His lively original compositions ironically led to Mark putting down his composer's pen to assume his major production debut as musical director for a national touring production of Grease in 1995.

Fourteen months on the road with the production earned him valuable experience and industry contacts that led Mark to the long running Chicago based production of Phantom of the Opera from 1997 to 1999 and also wound up producing the cast album for the show.

Next: Birth Of the Heat Part 2