curriculum vitae
At the age of sixteen, Mark Messenger was awarded a scholarship to study
violin at the Royal Academy of Music under David Martin and Sidney
Griller. Three years later he made his Wigmore Hall debut. He has since
played as soloist and chamber
musician
in all of London’s major concert halls and throughout the world,
appearing in many national and international festivals. He has broadcast
many times on television and radio, and has recorded for six labels.
1990 saw the launch of his immediately popular jazz/rock group,
Mercury Jazz.
However, it is in the world of chamber music where he has made
his reputation. For eight years he was a member of the
Bingham String
Quartet,
which championed the cause of contemporary music through its adventurous
commissioning and performance programme. Currently he is a member of the
internationally renowned
Bochmann String Quartet
with whom he has a busy international concert and recording schedule.
He is also much in demand as a solo recitalist as well as
leader of the European Chamber Opera
and Docklands Sinfonietta.
At the age of seventeen, he was appointed violin professor at Goldsmiths
College. For four years from 1993 he was director of Chamber Music at
the Aberystwyth International Summer Music Festival and was influential
in the development of educational policies for orchestras through his
work with the
English Symphony Orchestra
where he was Education Projects Manager. In 1999, he initiated the Essex
String Orchestras project, a raft of string ensembles at all levels
designed to re-invigorate string
playing within the county. He has also been a consultant on music
education policies for the
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
and for Colchester
Borough Council.
He also has much practical outreach experience, not only through the
education programmes with the Bochmann and Bingham string quartets, but
also through his conducting work for many youth orchestras throughout
the country including the Essex, Goldsmiths, E.S.O. and Brighton Youth
Orchestras. In 2001 he was appointed conductor of the Essex Young
People’s Orchestra.
In 1997 he was appointed Head of String Studies at the
Colchester
Institute of Music
and in September 2002 he became Head of Strings at the
Royal College of Music.
In 2004 he was appointed artistic
director of London
String Quartet Week and has been invited back for 2005. He now
travels across the globe as a performer, teacher, consultant and
examiner.
RETURN TO TOP |