The New York Times - 1986

Spring Waits Offstage for Winter’s Final Bow

In New York, the shift in the seasons often touches the city’s artists first – a creative crackle of sorts.

Mark Birnbaum, a pianist/composer who lives on the Upper West Side, said he knew it was the beginning of spring mostly because it was his mother’s birthday.  But he also felt some stirrings.  Sitting down at his piano in the morning to compose a "dark portrait of humanity" (Night of the Morning star) he said,  "instead I wrote some springy passages."
By Maureen Dowd
The New York Times - March 1986