Mark Schuster, a board member and faithful supporter of the IBMA Foundation, is a fifth-generation resident of Washington state and a life-long community activist and environmentalist. He founded The Schuster Group in 1989, a multi-faceted real estate company involved in everything from design and development to project management, investment, and consulting. Schuster is recognized as an early pioneer in building green and incorporating sustainable principles into his projects, earning him and his team national industry recognition and accolades. In addition to supporting bluegrass and acoustic music programs, Mark’s philanthropic efforts extend to supporting organizations focused on diversity education and social justice initiatives. He received the Torch of Liberty Award from the Anti-Defamation League in 2011. Mark is also the president of the Schuster Foundation, a non-profit fostering harmony, culture, and a sustainable future. Schuster’s book, Lofty Pursuits, published in 2010 by Brown Books Publishing Group, is the recipient of two national book awards.
He also plays the banjo.
“I grew up in a house with a lot of music, being one of five boys,” Schuster recalled. “My brother who was six years older than me was listening to a lot of Beatles and rock and roll, and I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s listening to new age and punk music. Yet, from a very early age I got into country music—Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams. For some reason, it resonated with me. I’ve always been attracted to the country lifestyle. If you look back through my childhood photos, I would often be wearing a cowboy hat and boots,” he smiled.
In his 20s Mark got interested in 1990s new country on the radio. “My cousin was working at The Mountain radio station, and they were producing these regular albums, the Mountain Music CDs.” Steve Earle produced an album with the Del McCoury Band in 1999 simply called The Mountain, which was nominated for a Bluegrass Grammy award. It was the first album Earle had released which consisted of all bluegrass originals, and he dedicated it to the memory of the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, who had died in 1996. Del McCoury, of course, was a Blue Grass Boy in Monroe’s band back in 1963.
“I’d never heard of either one of them, Steve Earle or Del McCoury,” Mark said. “My cousin gave me the CD and I put that thing on…and that was the beginning of the end! I went down a rabbit hole with bluegrass music from then on; I listened to everything from Earl Scruggs and Tony Rice to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and everything in between. I didn’t know that much about bluegrass, so I was just going to the music store and finding various CDs. That’s how I got into it, amazingly,” he said. “When people would come to my house, they knew all we’d be listening to was bluegrass.”
Mark played piano as a boy, and then as a teenager he played bass and some guitar. “I went back to piano in my 30s and got fairly serious about it,” he said, “but I gave it up again to focus on business. There was a period of 12-14 years when I didn’t play any instruments because I was focused on building my company.”
He continued to listen to music, including Steve Martin’s banjo recordings. “I was becoming more interested in the banjo,” Mark said. “In the aftermath of the financial crisis (the Recession of 2008), I found myself one summer with more time on my hands than usual. I was sitting outside on Whidbey Island in 2012 thinking, ‘What do I want to do this summer? I’ll see if I can learn how to play the banjo!’ I went to Joe’s music and bought a Samick banjo made in Korea and a book by Janet Davis called You Can Teach Yourself to Play the Banjo, and that’s what I did! I followed the book, and by the end of the summer I could play three songs. Then I signed up to study with Jason Stewart from east Tennessee, who was living in Seattle at the time. I took lessons from him for three years, and then I started going to banjo camps the fall of 2014.”
At banjo camp Mark learned a bit about the culture of jamming, and he gathered a half dozen people from camp who lived in his area. They got together to jam once a month, with Jason Stewart as their coach. “We celebrated our 10-year anniversary in October 2024,” Mark said. The group is called “The Sound Pickers”—a play on Puget Sound, as well as the powerful sound of bluegrass music.
Mark started a bluegrass band with his brother Paul, and they started to play local gigs just as Covid hit. Since then, he has continued to play with groups based on Whidbey Island. “Banjo is my primary instrument, and I also play guitar and bass on a basic level—well enough that folks love when I show up to jam with my bass, too,” he said.
Schuster is also involved with the philanthropy side of the music. Starting with the Wintergrass Music Festival, Mark has become involved as a patron of several organizations and festivals.
“I do a lot of jamming at those places, and now I’ve served on the IBMA Foundation board for a year,” Mark said. “I’ve been to IBMA’s World of Bluegrass twice, the Kruger Brothers academy and the Scruggs Camp both in North Carolina, and I’ve studied with Bill Evans in New Mexico. I’ve retired from day-to-day operations with my company to focus on music, charity work, and investments.” He remains the chairman of The Schuster Group.
Why does Mark Schuster support the IBMA Foundation, and why does he think you should, too?
“I support the IBMA Foundation because I believe in the mission,” he said, “and I think the history of bluegrass music and how it came to be in America—the culture and community—stands for so many things that I believe in. Bluegrass brings people together from all different ways of life including cultural, political, and religious beliefs, and it gives everyone a common ground and passion. It’s a place where we can lay down any differences we have for a greater good.”
Schuster believes that if more people understood the musical roots of bluegrass and early country music, it would give them a greater appreciation for diversity in the United States. “That’s number one,” he said. “Number two is the importance of gathering as a community for a greater good and a greater joy. The only way to promote that is to help bring along and support the genre and the musicians who play bluegrass, as well as the festivals where people come to gather. So, that’s why I support it!”
RETURN to the June 2025 issue of The Cornerstone.
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