Mark is a platinum award winning singer/lyricist who has had over 150 of his songs recorded and/or sung by such artists as Dianne Reeves, Randy Crawford, Liza Minnelli, Bob Dorough and Lea Salonga.  He has written lyrics for tunes by such esteemed composers as Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, Joshua Redman and David Benoit. A composition he co-wrote with David Benoit, "Land of the Loving", is featured in all of the Philippine National Tourism Board's 2008/2009 TV commercials.

Mark has released 9 CDs in the US. His new CD of mostly original Winkler lyrics, "Till I Get It Right" is on Freeham Records. It features such musicians as Anthony Wilson, Bob Sheppard, Jamieson Trotter and Cheryl Bentyne of Manhattan Transfer who duets with Mark on an original Winkler composition "Cool".

He is the co-writer of the hit Musical Review "Naked Boys Singing!" in its 10th year playing Off Broadway, and just released as a movie on DVD. He is the creator and co-writer of "Too Old for the Chorus" which has played successful engagements in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Diego. He has won both L.A. Weekly and Backstage West awards for best score for "Naked Boys Singing!" He has also co-written songs for the musical revues "Bark!" and "Hangin' Out".  His jazz musical "Play it Cool" which premiered in Los Angeles in 2007 got "Critics Choice" in the L.A. Times. It was chosen to be part of the prestigious New York Musical Theatre Festival in September of 2008 where it sold out all performances and got excellent reviews. It has just been nominated for Best Musical-Off Broadway by GLAAD.

As an educator Mark has taught seminars in lyric writing at The Songwriters Guild and the Learning Annex, and he now teaches "Crafting Great Lyrics: A Songwriters Workshop" at UCLA Extension.

Mark studied keyboard with Cat in the 70s, and was a featured performer in Cat Cohen's musical Lightflow with Venice Free Theater.  They've written several rock and pop tunes together.  Cat has been a guest at Mark’s UCLA Extension Lyric Writing class.