biography
Mark has composed new works for the Arditti Quartet, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Ulster Orchestra, the baritone Jeremy Huw Williams, CoMA at the Spitalfields Festival, the Richard Alston Dance Company, the London Handel Festival and W11 Opera.
Born in South Wales in 1979, Mark
studied composition with Richard Steinitz at The University of
Huddersfield graduating with first class honours and the
university's Crabtree Prize. Supported by awards from the Countess
of Munster Trust, the RVW Trust, the Arts Council of Wales and the
Rivendell Trust he subsequently completed a Master’s degree
in composition with Julian Anderson at the Royal College of Music
where he won most of the major composition prizes including the
Cobbett and Hurlstone Prize for outstanding creative achievement.
In 2002 Mark was awarded an RVW Trust Bursary to study with
Errollyn Wallen on the advanced composition course at the
Dartington International Summer School. Mark completed his studies
by participating in several courses and residencies on the
Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Aldeburgh and undertaking
doctoral research with Philip Cashian at Royal Holloway, University
of London where he is currently Director of Composition.
Mark’s abiding interest in dance has resulted in many collaborations with choreographers. He is currently Music Fellow at Rambert Dance Company. During his studies Mark was invited to take part in the Choreographers and Composers Exchange at the South Bank Centre and more recently he worked with the Richard Alston Dance Company collaborating with Martin Lawrance to create a new music and dance work which toured the UK alongside new works by Richard Alston and Simon Holt. Mark has also created music for Christina Gonzalez’s production, Physical Sound, Moving Pictures, premièred at the Bonnie Bird Theatre at Laban, and Yasmin Lei’s dance project, Yin Yang Dance Project, premièred at the Yorkshire Dance Centre. In 2010 Mark was awarded a grant from the Cultural Olympiad to create a new music and dance collaborative project for emerging composers and choreographers.
Mark has extensive education and outreach experience, especially working with young people. As composer-in-residence at Handel House Museum Mark led creative projects in secondary schools, primary schools, for the RNIB and for Trinity College of Music. He has led projects for the award-winning Sound Inventors programme, participated in the spnm’s Composing 4 Kids and Adopt-A-Composer schemes and regularly undertakes freelance animateur work.
Mark is a member of the British Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and also an active saxophonist performing with the Contemporary Consort, the Bergamo Ensemble and the Camberwell Composers’ Collective in London and the rest of the UK.
Mark’s abiding interest in dance has resulted in many collaborations with choreographers. He is currently Music Fellow at Rambert Dance Company. During his studies Mark was invited to take part in the Choreographers and Composers Exchange at the South Bank Centre and more recently he worked with the Richard Alston Dance Company collaborating with Martin Lawrance to create a new music and dance work which toured the UK alongside new works by Richard Alston and Simon Holt. Mark has also created music for Christina Gonzalez’s production, Physical Sound, Moving Pictures, premièred at the Bonnie Bird Theatre at Laban, and Yasmin Lei’s dance project, Yin Yang Dance Project, premièred at the Yorkshire Dance Centre. In 2010 Mark was awarded a grant from the Cultural Olympiad to create a new music and dance collaborative project for emerging composers and choreographers.
Mark has extensive education and outreach experience, especially working with young people. As composer-in-residence at Handel House Museum Mark led creative projects in secondary schools, primary schools, for the RNIB and for Trinity College of Music. He has led projects for the award-winning Sound Inventors programme, participated in the spnm’s Composing 4 Kids and Adopt-A-Composer schemes and regularly undertakes freelance animateur work.
Mark is a member of the British Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and also an active saxophonist performing with the Contemporary Consort, the Bergamo Ensemble and the Camberwell Composers’ Collective in London and the rest of the UK.