Bradley Mariska currently serves as the Associate Director of Bands at Farmington High School. In addition to teaching instrumental music, Mariska is an avid devotee of musical theatre and co-created the innovative Hamilton: History and Music class at FHS. In 2012, School Band and Orchestra Magazine named Mariska one of the nation’s “50 Directors Who Make a Difference" and has served as Director on the boards of several community arts organizations.
Mariska began his theatre career at the age of 7, starring as the Prince in "Snow White" to the great acclaim of his 1st grade classmates and his mom. Since then, Mariska has been involved in dozens of plays and musicals as an actor, pit musician, and director. In addition to school and community musicals, Mariska has also coordinated theater camps, children's theatre productions, one-act plays, and more. He has also participated in the Broadway Teacher's Workshop in New York, where he studied with leading theatre professionals, including Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Some of Mariska's favorite musicals include Les Miserables, Come From Away, Oklahoma, Pippin, Billy Elliot, and The Sound of Music. Favorite roles include playing Orin the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors, Arvide in Guys and Dolls, and the Narrator in Into the Woods. Most recently, Mariska has served for the past two years as the pit orchestra director for the FHS musicals, and he directed the FHS one-act play in 2019.
A native of Waterville, MN, Mariska earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Buena Vista University (Storm Lake, IA) and an M.A. in Musicology/Music History from the University of Maryland. His Master’s Thesis, “Who Expects a Miracle To Happen Every Day?: Rediscovering Me and Juliet and Pipe Dream, the Forgotten Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein,” is referenced in several scholarly texts, including “The Musical: A Research and Information Guide” (Routledge, 2011).
