Mark Smith, Associate Professor of Percussion at Chicago State University, is Head of CSU's Department of Music and Director of the CSU Steel Band. He earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the American Conservatory of Music and is now pursuing a D.M.A. degree at Indiana University. Smith formerly taught percussion at South Suburban College, the American Conservatory of Music, and Park Forest Conservatory of Music; he also served as Director of the American Conservatory of Music's Steel Band and has offered percussion/steel band clinics locally. He has performed professionally on timpani, marimba/percussion, drumset, and steel drums for many venues/occasions, including television commercials and film soundtracks. In 1997 he supervised the recording and filming of the CSU steel band for the movie Mercury Rising, starring Bruce Willis. Smith currently performs on double tenor steel pans with "Pan Go," does keyboards, percussion, steel pan, and vocals with "Keith Eric & Waterhouse," and is the leader of "Steel Express," with which he performs on steel pan, drumset, and keyboards. He formerly played electric drumset with the Frank Gregory Band, a contemporary jazz group, acoustic drumset with Dave Uhrich's contemporary rock band, and was leader of Summer Daze. He has recorded on several compact discs released by these same groups.