Mark had a passion for the clawhammer banjo from the first time he heard it played by folk singer Tony Saletan in New England. While studying for a year at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1976 he took lessons from Tony who took him through all of the styles presented by Pete Seeger in his classic banjo book, which culminated in the frailing style. They then moved on to Art Rosenbaum's "Art of the Mountain Banjo".

Schatz subsequently played out on Boston Common and the streets of Harvard Square, and took his first trip south to Fiddler's Grove, an old time fiddler's convention in the Piedmont of North Carolina. He played banjo and mandolin in little folk duos through his last two years of college (Haverford, where he received his BA in Music Theory), and planned to continue to do that, but then got a job playing bass in a Boston based bluegrass band with Bela Fleck called Tasty Licks. That move strongly shaped his professional career. But Mark kept playing the banjo, and started writing his own tunes on it.

In 1990 two things happened that spurred Mark's banjo ambitions. First, he joined Tim O'Brien when he formed the O'Boys. Because of his own love for old time music, Tim would always feature some fiddle and banjo music in his shows. Second, Mark started performing off and on with The Fiddle Puppet Dancers (now Footworks). This inspired him to take his banjo playing and writing more seriously, and led to his recording Brand New Old Tyme Way for Rounder, produced by Bela and released in 1995. Mark has also played banjo on recording projects of other artists including Bela, Jerry Douglas (Mark's banjo kicks off the IBMA award show theme music which he co-wrote with Douglas), David Grier, and Mark O'Connor.