Mark David Buckles is the co-founder and Music Director Emeritus of Juventas. He received his Masters of Music in Conducting at Boston University, studying with Ann Howard Jones, Bruce Hangen and Theodore Antoniou. He is currently the Acting Music Director at Arlington Street Church in downtown Boston.

A native of Beverly Hills, Michigan, Mark received his Bachelors of Music in Composition from the University of Michigan, where he studied composition with Evan Chambers, William Bolcom, Karen Tanaka, Erik Santos and Susan Botti; and conducting with Jerry Blackstone, Theodore Morrison, and Sandra Snow. He also studied voice, piano, and carillon. Mark has received commissions from the University of Michigan Women's Glee Club, the University of Michigan Honors Convocation, Miller College, and Dixboro United Methodist Church, and his works have been performed and recorded by the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the Boston Choral Ensemble and the Saint Petersburg String Quartet.

Mark is a 2006 graduate of the Conductors' Institute at Bard College, where he studied with Harold Farberman, Apo Hsu, Raymond Harvey, Leon Botstein, Sidney Rothstein, Guillermo Figueroa, and Marin Alsop. In 2003 and 2005, Mark participated in the European American Music Alliance through the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Claude Baker, Philip Lasser, Nacis Bonet, and Mark Shapiro, and received honors for his studies in counterpoint and harmony.