New York based composer, pianist and video artist Brian Mark has been hailed as an “attractive and intelligible” artist (Boston Musical Intelligencer), whose work is “compelling” (London Jazz News), and "preserves the vibrancy and relevance of contemporary art music" (New York Examiner). The American Composers Forum esteemed Brian as an "intelligent, modern composer who employs many media elements and does so with marked idiosyncrasy and depth”. His concert programming as an artistic director for “Ensemble in Process” has recently been described as “a fluid approach to presenting new music in fresh contexts and juxtapositions” (The New Yorker), and his previous curations for “DETOUR” was featured as "one the top five new music events of 2011" from New York’s Classical WQXR. Brian's music have been performed by many notable ensembles, such as the BBC Singers, Chelsea Symphony, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Signal Ensemble, Atlas Ensemble, Psappha Ensemble, Choral Chameleon, both the Ligeti and Esterhazy String Quartets, members of the London Symphony Orchestra, Juventas Ensemble, Dither Quartet, among many others. His works have been presented around the world in festivals such as Bang on a Can, London Contemporary Music Festival, Atlas Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Spitalfields Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Bowdoin, i=u, and the highSCORE Festival. Brian has recently been awarded a 2021 grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council. He has also received multiple awards and grants from the Jerome Fund, New Music USA, the Grammy Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, ASCAP, New London Singers, Ross McKee Foundation, Florence Gould Michael Iovenko Memorial Fellowship, the BMI Henry Warren Film Scoring Award, and was very highly commended for the 2016 Alan Bush Prize. He has been featured as a composer-in-residence with the Chelsea Symphony, the Bizarre Noir Theatre Company, and was awarded multiple artist residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, i-Park, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Ucross Foundation. He has received an Honorable Mention from the 2015 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, and was awarded one of the top ten prizes from Mozaik’s Philanthropy’s “Future Art Awards” Competition for works created in response to COVID-19. He also received a fellowship to study Korean Music at the National Gugak Centre in Seoul. As a composer for film, his music for the Independent Short Film Misunderstood, directed by Pablo Herrán de Viu, was exhibited at the 2009 Screen Loud Film Festival in NYC, and the 2010 Festival Internacional de Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás in Habana City, Cuba. He was appointed as an Associate Member with the London Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Soundhub Scheme from 2015-2017, which culminated of a video installation premiere comprising of members from the LSO. Brian has completed his PhD in Music Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Gary Carpenter. He is also a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Berklee College of Music, the University of South California’s Graduate Film Scoring Program, and Boston University.
Brian Mark 341 10th St. Apt #15C Brooklyn, NY 11215 E-mail: BrianJMark@gmail.com Education: Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Cum Laude, May 1998 Boston University, Boston, MA
Bachelor of Music in Composition/Film Scoring Cum Laude, May 2002 Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA
Master of Music in Composition Cum Laude, May 2006 San Francisco Conservatory of Music San Francisco, CA
Doctor of Philosophy in Music Composition July, 2016 Royal Academy of Music, London, UK
Commissions: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Brooklyn Arts Council Grant: The Illusion of Separateness for Violin, Loop Pedal and Choreographed Dance; October 2021 Trombonist Cole Bartels: Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; May 2020 Astoria Music Project: Harlem (A Dream Deferred) for Small Chamber Ensemble and Soprano; February 2019 London Symphony Orchestra: Video Installation with Performance for We Interrupt this Broadcast: 1936-69’; May 2017 Psappha Ensemble: Invocation for Solo Percussion and Delay Pedal; May 2017 10 & Broadway Ensemble; Several Circles for Clarinet Quintet; January 2017 Double Trouble: Breathe for two Pianos, Narration and Sound Desgin; January 2017 The Marsyas Trio: Lucid Dreaming for Flute, Violoncello and Delay Pedal; 2015-2017 i equals u Festival: We Interrupt this Broadcast:1936-69’ for Chamber Ensemble, PreRecorded Narration and Sound Design; September 2013 Australian Violist Glen Donnelly: towers, beautiful, mourning, Tuesday, for Solo Viola, Delay Pedal, and Pre-Recorded Sound Design; June 2013 Royal Academy Chamber Choir: Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum for SATB Choir at Neresheim Abbey, Germany, August 2012 Choral Chameleon: Our Material World: Three Madonna Songs for SATB Choir, Harp, and Flute; April 2012 UK Spitalfields Music Festival: Fantasia on a Lament, for Solo Oboe and Delay Pedal; December 2011 Chelsea Symphony: The Persistence of Time for Full Symphony Orchestra; September 2009 Harpist Michelle Gott: Night with her Train of Stars for Small Chamber Ensemble; May 2009 International Figure Skating Magazine: Music for The List: The 25 Most Influential Names in Figure Skating; June 2002 th
Awards and Honors: • • • • • • •
2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grant: Ensemble in Process in Collaboration with RyderDance at Old Stone House of Brooklyn, NYC; October 2021 2020 Mozaik Philanthropy National “Future Arts Awards” Competition Prize; May 2020 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2020 American Prize Finalists in Choral Composition, Vocal Chamber Music Division, Chamber Music Division and Orchestral Composition Categories Awarded a fellowship to study Korean Music at the National Gugak Centre; June 2019 Awarded Jerome Composers Commissioning Program/Jerome Fund Grant for Breathe, a work for 2 Pianos, Narration and Sound Design; November 2016 Awarded the ASCAP Foundation Fellowship to attend the 2016 Bang on a Can Summer Festival; July 2016 Highly Commended for the 2016 Alan Bush Prize for We Interrupt this Broadcast: 1936-69’, a work for Chamber Ensemble, Pre-Recorded Narration and Sound Design; June 2016
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Appointed as the Associate Member for the London Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Soundhub Scheme; 2015-2017 Awarded Second Prize from the New London Singers Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Choral Composition Contest; Spring 2012 Artist-in-Residence at the Ucross Foundation and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts; Fall 2010 Artist-in-Residence at the I-Park Artists’ Enclave; Spring 2010 Awarded the SCI/ASCAP 2008 Student Commission Competition Prize (Regional Winner) Awarded the Florence Gould Michael Iovenko Memorial Fellowship Award from the European American Musical Alliance, Summer 2008 Awarded 1st prize for the 5th Bi-Annual San Francisco Conservatory of Choral Composition Competition; May 2006 Awarded a fellowship to study composition at the California Summer Music Festival made possible by the Ross Mckee Foundation for the Musical Arts; Summer 2005 Awarded the BMI Henry Warren Film Scoring Scholarship at the University of Southern California; Spring 2003
Professional and Teaching Experience: • • • • • • • • • • • •
Artistic Director and Curator for Ensemble in Process Concert Series; Spring 2017 to Present Associate Member for the London Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Soundhub Scheme; 2015-2017 Curator for Americuration Series with Nonclassical; Spring 2015 Piano, Theory and Composition Private Tutor (UK and US); September 2014 to Present Music Director and Choral Conductor for St. Michael & All Angels Church, London, UK; May 2014 to October 2017 Former Artistic Director and Curator for DETOUR Concert Series; Spring 2009 to Summer 2011 Clarinetist with the Chelsea Symphony for the 2009-2010 Season Clarinetist with the Huxley Vertical Cabaret Nouveau; Summer 2009 to Summer 2010 Pianist/Arranger with the Bizarre Noir Theatre Co for an Off-Off Broadway Musical Theatre Review Production; Fall 2008 Accompanist and Assistant Musical Director for a Musical Theatre Review Program at Urban Academy; Fall 2008 Choral Accompanist and Music Theory Instructor for the San Francisco Boys Chorus; Fall 2007 to Spring 2008 Music Director and Choral Conductor for Grace United Methodist Church in San Francisco; Spring 2007 to Spring 2008