New Director Of Visual And Performing Arts Hired For TCISD
TEXAS CITY – An experienced fine arts director has been tapped to fill the Director of Visual and Performing Arts that has been vacant since February. Mark Lyon, currently the Executive Director of Fine Arts in Ector County ISD, will replace Joseph Figarelli who left the district in February when he took a job in Garland ISD.
“Mr. Lyon brings more than 12 years of administrative experience to Texas City ISD,” said Superintendent Dr. Rodney Cavness. “We believe that he will be able to jump right in to continue to make enhancements to our award-wining fine arts program.”
As a fine arts director, Lyon has supervised up to 150 employees with 28,000 students in art, band, choir, mariachi, harp, guitar, piano, jazz band and pop ensembles, theatre, JROTC, dance, color guard, majorettes and other ensembles.
He is originally from Bloomington, IL where he grew up playing the trombone. His junior year in High School he was offered a scholarship to attend the world famous Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, MI. Here he was introduced to music of all styles. He was accepted into Manhattan School of Music where he studied with world renown trombonist Steve Turre of the Saturday Night Live Band. He did additional coursework at the University of Miami where he studied both Classical and Jazz Performance. He has a degree in Music Performance and a Masters in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
He has performed professionally with greats like Lionel Hampton, Stanley Turrentine, Maceo Parker, The Ojays and others as well as leading his own jazz group. In 2010 he recorded his own CD titled Uvalde Blues. He was the Music Director for several ships for Royal Caribbean International for four years and he lived in Las Vegas and played in many shows and with many bands before beginning his career in education in 2005. Lyon was the Fine Arts Director in Uvalde CISD for 5 years before being recruited to work as the Executive Director of Fine Arts in Ector County ISD, where’s he been since 2015.
“We welcome the Lyon family to Texas City ISD. With the hiring of Mr. Lyon, we also get his wife, who is an accomplished choir director at Permian High School,” said Dr. Cavness. Suvanna Lyon is also considering a position in Texas City ISD. They have two children, a 4-year-old son a 1-year-old daughter.
