Mark Schuster
Mark Schuster and Maria Zann "were both trained as biologists, and taught themselves to play Australian dance music eight years ago. ... Mark Schuster's grandparents were German immigrants to north Queensland. He plays button accordian, is interested in oral history and European ethnic dance music and collects dance music for the National Library. We have taught these dances and tunes at folk festival workshops and written articles about the many wonderful people we have met in "Queensland Folk". -- "A Queensland Selection", Vol 1, compiled by Maria Zann, collected by Mark Schuster, Pioneer Performer Series, Carrawobbity Press, 1992, p4.
"When we returned to Queensland in 1988, after exile in Canberra for five years, Mark and I began to collect dance music and dances in earnest. Fortunately there were elderly musicians and dance M.C.'s (Masters of Ceremonies) in out of the way places who were keen to teach us their repertoires." -- ibid. p1.
The Mark Schuster and Maria Zann folklore collection 1958-1998 is held in the National Library of Australia in Canberra. It holds 194 records. This collection of recordings documents old Scandinavian and German culture in rural southern Queensland and New South Wales, including rural culture, dance, dance music, accordions and string bands. The collection is predominantly interviews recorded by Mark Schuster and Maria Zann, but also includes copies of older recordings of string band performances and accordion players which were given to the collector. The collection also contains a recording of Slovenian folk music.
Mark Schuster and Maria Zann collected, provided details & recorded of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
