Peter Markes (pronounced Marcus) is an award-winning music educator and performer based out of Oklahoma City. Since 2020, he has taught on faculty at Oklahoma City University as associate professor and director of music education. Before joining faculty he taught orchestra in the Edmond Public Schools for 15 years, taking the Edmond North Orchestra on two tours to Carnegie Hall, two honor group appearances at the Oklahoma Music Educators Association State Conference, and a performance at the 2012 Midwest Clinic. In recognition of his service to the teaching profession, he was chosen from over 45,000 educators as the 2014 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. In 2024 Markes had his first professional publication as a chapter contributor to Portraits of Social Emotional Learning in Music Teacher Education (pub. GIA). A strong proponent of SEL in Music Education, his focus in the OCU music teacher program is in guiding students to finding their identity as music educators, a sense of belonging to the profession, and the agency to become leaders in the field. Most recently, he presented at the national conference for the American String Teachers Association, and his first professional journal article appeared in American String Teacher. 

 

As a solo artist, audiences are entertained by Markes’ one-man band live-looping performances where he uses his 5-string electric violin, guitar, and beat-boxing to create and build pop hits from scratch! Also a guitarist and singer-songwriter, Peter has written and released two albums in the folk-pop genre, My Father's Age (2024) and I Have a Dream (2018), available to stream worldwide. He performs regularly on the Arts Council of Oklahoma City’s “Art Moves” series, and can be seen regularly throughout the OKC metro. ​He also founded and maintains his own small business and publishing company, Songs to ReJoyce Publishing.

 

For over 30 years, Markes has performed with musical partner (and double-third-cousin), Kyle Dillingham, in over thirty countries in North, Central, and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 2000 while in Bangkok, Thailand, they recorded an album of thirteen original songs, titled Outside the Box. In 2013, the band was selected as one of ten performing ensembles to represent the U.S. Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs in the American Music Abroad (AMA) program and toured for five weeks in Korea, Taiwan, Burma, and northeastern Russia. In 2014 they performed as part of the 4th of July celebrations for the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. The band was showcased at the 2018 CMA FEST in Nashville, TN and completed another AMA tour to Kuwait and Kosovo in 2019. In July 2019, they had their debut on the Grand Ole Opry, the stage that made country music famous. They performed the 2025 New Year’s Eve halftime show for the OKC Thunder, and most recently the National Endowment for the Arts Legacy Stage in Washington, D.C., as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration.​

 

In 2026, Markes had his debut guest conducting the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Discovery Family Series. In 2020 Peter traveled on behalf of U.S. Embassy KSA to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to serve lead guitar instructor for the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture & Arts in Riyadh. In 2015, he finished an eight year span as conductor for the Oklahoma Youth Philharmonic, and he still serves as Artistic Director for the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras Summer Symphony Strings Camp. While on tour through Germany with the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra in 2004, Peter conducted the European premiere of Summer Song by composer Samuel Magrill. With the Edmond North Orchestra, he has conducted in the Chicago Symphony Center, the Music Center at Strathmore (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), the Dallas Meyerson Symphony Center, the Oklahoma Civic Center Music Hall, and the world-famous Carnegie Hall where the ensemble was met with numerous standing ovations. He is regularly invited to clinic and conduct all-city orchestra and honor orchestra festivals throughout the region.

 

Markes holds a masters degree with honors in Educational Leadership from the University of Central Oklahoma and also graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors from Oklahoma City University where he earned his bachelor degree in music education with emphasis in violin and guitar and received the Letzeiser Silver Medal. At OCU he was twice selected as a concerto competition winner on violin. In addition, he performed in master classes with the ProArte String Quartet, violinist Corey Cerovsek, and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano (The Red Violin).  He also played in the pit orchestra for sixteen productions with the Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company, and spent one term playing euphonium with the OCU wind ensemble. 

 

​In 2013, Markes was selected as the Teacher of the Year for the Edmond Public Schools. In the same year, the National Federation of High Schools named him the Outstanding Music Educator for Region VI (OK, AR, TX, KS, CO) and also one of the “40 Under Forty” by OKC Biz magazine. In 2009, Peter was selected by School Band and Orchestra magazine as the Oklahoma representative for the nation’s “50 Directors Who Make a Difference.”  In 2007, he was selected as the Cheyenne Middle School Teacher of the Year and in 2003, the Enid Public Schools Resident Teacher of the Year. Also in 2007, Peter was awarded a Governor’s Commendation from Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and has been honored three times by former students as their Teacher of Honor at the Oklahoma Academic All-State Celebration of Excellence. He has been named Teacher of Today by the Oklahoma City Masonic Fraternity and received the 2012 Global Health Inspirational Teacher Award for the North High School vertical schools. In 2018 he became the second inductee to the Wall of Honor at his alma mater, Emerson Middle School in Enid, OK. 

 

Markes served as Orchestra Division Vice-President for the Oklahoma Music Educators Association, president for the Oklahoma North Central Honor Orchestra, president for the American String Teachers Association Oklahoma chapter, has twice served as the Oklahoma Music Educators Association All-State Honor Orchestra chair, and served two terms on the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association Music Advisory Board. He has performed as the concertmaster for the Enid Symphony Orchestra, is a three-year alum of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, and performed two seasons as a section violinist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. He is certified-trained by the Advanced Placement College Board to teach Advanced Placement Music Theory, a course he taught for eight years at Edmond North High School. His professional memberships include or have included the Parent Teacher Association, the American String Teachers Association, the National Association for Music Education Oklahoma chapter, the National Education Association - Oklahoma and Edmond chapters, the North Central Honor Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Orchestra League, and the Pi Kappa Lambda honor music fraternity. Peter resides in Oklahoma City with his wife, Kris, and  together they have two sons.