Composer Bath UK

 

 

 

 

Composer in Bath and UK


 

Biography

Mark took his first step into music by studying with Peter Reynolds at RWCMD before continuing his studies with Ken Hesketh at the Royal College of Music, where he was generously supported by the RVW Trust and Henry Wood Trust. He graduated with Distinction from the MMus course in Advanced Composition in 2011.

He has been awarded a Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal (2008), the LSQ New Music Competition First Prize (2008), the Composer's of Wales William Mathias Composition Prize (2009), The Friends of the Music of St. Giles Cathedral Composition Competition (2010), an Ivor Novello award (formerly British Composer Awards, 2010) and the University of St. Andrews 600th Anniversary Composition Competition (2011). In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious John Clementi Collard Fellowship from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and was re-awarded the fellowship in 2017. Mark was made an Associate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2018 and received the Hilary Tann Award from the Welsh Music Guild for outstanding achievement in music in Wales (2025). In 2026, his chamber work Gusto won the St. Magnus International Festival's 50th Anniversary Composition Competition. 

Commissioned by the best

Mark has been commissioned by a varied range of ensembles including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Hebrides Ensemble, Bath Abbey Choir, Sinfonia Cymru and Camerata Nordica in addition to writing for the ABRSM Spectrum series. Numerous orchestral works have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 including Six Degrees, Fuochi Distanti and Ghyll in addition to several works for voices including Siegfried Stanzas and Homo Sum. In 2017, Mark's choral work Awake Glad Heart opened the Christmas Day broadcast by the BBC Symphony Chorus on BBC Radio 3. His recent Clarinet Concerto commissioned by BBC National Orchestra of Wales and generously supported by Worshipful Company of Musicians has already received numerous broadcasts. His violin concerto Chasing Sunlight commissioned by Sinfonia Cymru for Fenella Humphreys was selected by PRS Foundation's New Music Biennial 2025 with performances across the UK, including in Bradford as part of City of Culture 2025 and at the QEH at London's Southbank Centre. Chasing Sunlight was recorded for broadcast by BBC and released on NMC recordings. 

Composing on the continent

Mark's music has been performed across Europe by musicians such as Quatour Tana (Belgium), Camerata Nordica (Sweden), Nexus Reed Quintet (Switzerland) and violinist Bartosz Woroch (Poland).  Mark's Clarinet Concerto (commissioned by BBC NOW for principal clarinetist Robert Plane as part of their 90th birthday celebrations) premiered in March 2018. He recently collaborated with children's author Catherine Bruton on the musical POP! which premiered in Bath during December 2017. He has a longstanding relationship with the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival where multiple works have received performances including Smaller Than the Trees, Linden and his piano trio. 

 


Residency and lecturing 

Between 2007-2012, Mark worked as a tutor in the Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He was appointed Sir William Walton Trust Junior Fellow in Composition between 2012 and 2014 and is currently a lecturer in Music at RWCMD. In 2011, Mark began a three-year residency with the University of St. Andrews Symphony Orchestra and in 2012 was appointed composer-in-residence with King Edward's School, Bath. He served as Artistic Advisor to Sinfonia Newydd between 2012-2015 and is published by Chester Music Ltd. He has been a guest lecturer at the universities of Cardiff and St. Andrews and worked as a composition mentor for Ty Cerdd, the Presteigne Festival and Vale of Glamorgan Festival.