Mark
Mark is originally from Wales, but has now lived in Alberta for some 27 years. He discovered a passion for classical music while at school, which led him to modifying his parent’s Garrard console to get better sound, much to their annoyance. He has loved music (of all kinds) and audio equipment (of almost all kinds) ever since, and has written about music for newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. This culminated in writing a large book on 20th Century composers (The Pimlico Dictionary of 20th-Century Composers), for which he listened to well over 3,500 major works. It also eventually led to work as a librettist – someone who writes words for composers – and his operas and other works have now been heard in eight countries and in four languages, and broadcast on BBC, CBC, and SkyTV.
Mark’s love for audio quickly followed on the love for music. Over the years he has owned and enjoyed classic equipment, both new and used, of almost every conceivable kind, right through the alphabet from Apogee to Yamaha. He is also a photographer, and has had exhibitions in Banff, Edmonton, and Vancouver. Mark now teaches in the English and Film Studies Department of the University of Alberta, lives in an historic farm house (as old as the Province) south of the city, and is the classical music critic for the Edmonton Journal.