Mark first began taking a keen interest in keyboard instruments at the age of 4 years old. Since then he has led a music-driven life, studying music all the way to a Bachelor of Music degree. Mark has sung and played with orchestras throughout the years; he was a member of The Northern Ireland Symphony Orchestra and played with the Ulster Youth Orchestra in their first two years of existence. He has served in orchestras as a piano, keyboard, celeste, clarinet and saxophone player.  He is also a trained orchestral conductor, and has led concerts in this capacity in performances of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, Mozart’s “Requiem”, Faure’s “Requiem”, Crusell Clarinet Concerto No. 2 & Elgar’s “Serenade for strings” among others.

In 2005 he moved to Canada to pursue training as a piano technician at The University of Western Ontario. Here he undertook the university’s Piano Technology Programme (the only one of its kind in the world to be situated in a university) under the guidance of Don Stephenson – one of Canada’s leading piano technicians.

In addition to his training, he helped maintain the music department’s practice pianos (approximately 150 instruments in total). During his time at Western, he undertook field trips to the Steinway factory, Steinway Hall and the Yamaha performers’ studio that are all based in New York, and also the Mason & Hamlin Piano Factory in Boston; here he attended seminars given by some of the leading piano technicians on the continent. Since then Mark has revisited UWO as a guest lecturer.