Personal statement

Mark is a drummer and percussionist, composer and researcher. With over twenty years' experience as a touring and recording musician in a range of genres, Mark brings an eclectic approach to music education.

He has worked with jazz luminaries including Andy Sheppard, Iain Ballamy, Jason Rebello, Pee Wee Ellis and Clare Teal. Cross-genre collaborations with Charles Hazlewood, Portishead's Adrian Utley and Goldfrapp's Will Gregory, Mercury Prize nominee and BBC Folk Music Award winner Eliza Carthy and extensive theatre work including the world premiere of 'Starter for Ten' at the Bristol Old Vic (2024).

Mark's compositions and performances have received airplay on BBC Radio 2, BBC 6Music, with live performances for Jazz FM and MMC Raid 3: Jazz on 3 and We Get Requests, with TV work featured on HBO and BBC 2. He has performed at major UK and European jazz festivals and from the mud of Glastonbury Festival to the bling of the Royal Albert Hall.

Mark's keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration which has led to Arts Council funded works as both composer and performer with dancers, scientists, puppeteers and poets.

His current PhD research focusses on the role of artificial intelligence as both collaborator and disruptor in the liminal space between composition and improvisation. Conference presentations, performances and publications explore how AI can empower human performers through the lenses of 4E Cognition and Actor-Network Theory.

Academic qualifications

  • BPharm (Hons), University of Bath
  • MA in Music Composition, University of Bristol
  • PG Cert Ed in higher Education, University of Middlesex

Professional memberships

  • International Computer Music Association
  • Performing Rights Society
  • Musicians Union

Other external roles

  • Senior Lecturer, BIMM University, Bristol
  • Mentor and Tutor for Southwest Music School

Teaching specialism

  • Drum kit and percussion performance and technique
  • Improvisation
  • Interdisciplinary collaboration
  • Musicianship & theory
  • Electroacoustic performance and composition
  • Recording, mixing and DAW skills

Conference papers

  • ‘Artificial intelligence as collaborator and disruptor: empowering improvising musicians through the lens of embodied, embedded, enacted and extended cognition’: Innovation in Music, Bath, UK, 20-22 June 2025. Paper presentation and opening-night performance.