Born in Northhampton, Mark began his formal musicaltraining at Chethams's School of Music with Gordon Crosskey. He then went on tostudy with Michael Lewin as a scholarship student at the Royal Academy ofMusic, from where he graduated in 1993 with first class honours and awards fromthe Principal. During the following few years Mark completed his studies inSpain with guitarist David Russell, thanks to a number of bursaries.
Early on in his performing career Mark became alaureate of several major national and international competitions includingRadio Two's Young Musician, the Julian Bream Prize, the Guitar Foundation ofAmerica and the Alessandria International Guitar competition, Italy. Afterwinning the Radio 2 Competition Mark's career really took off performingregular live recitals on the BBC as a soloist and with the BBC ConcertOrchestra. He was also given his own hour-long showcase programmme, broadcastlive on the radio.
He has performed at many of the UK's mostprestigious music venues, including the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre,Fairfield Halls, Bridgewater Hall Manchester and the Sage-Gateshead.Performances have also taken him to France, Spain, Italy, Finland, Holland,Sweden, Hungary, Germany, Poland, U.S.A, Cuba and Barbados. As a concertsoloist Mark has performed with many leading orchestras including the RoyalPhilharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, London Concertante and the TurinSymphony Orchestra, under the baton of such eminent conductors as Carl Davis,Christopher Warren-Green, Barry Wordsworth and Ignacio Yepes.
Mark has recorded seven CD's including a recordingof Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez' with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestraconducted by Nicholas Cleobury. This led to a most successful promotion touraround the UK with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His latest CD is with theVida Guitar Quartet (Mark Eden, Helen Sanderson and Chris Stell) entitled'Rapsody' features their own arrangements of iconic Orchestral music by GeorgeGershwin, Malcolm Arnold and Adam Gorb.
He was course director at the international guitarFestival-Bath for six years and regularly gives masterclasses at InternationalFestivals and the leading Conservatoires of Music. He is currently head ofguitar at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music and in 2003 was elected anAssociate of the Royal Academy of Music having achieved distinction in themusic profession.