Mr Mark Ferguson

Mr Mark Ferguson
 Position Lecturer
 Org Unit Elder Conservatorium of Music
 Email mark.ferguson@adelaide.edu.au
 Telephone +61 8 8313 3828
 Location Floor/Room MB ,  Madley ,   North Terrace

  • Biography/ Background

    Mark Ferguson began teaching in the Jazz Department at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in 1992 while completing the Honours Component of of his B.Mus. Hons. degree (he completed his Master of Music in 1999). He continued to teach at the University on a casual basis until 2016 when he was appointed to the position of Lecturer in Jazz Piano after the retirement of long-standing head Bruce Hancock. 

    His teaching at the University has covered almost all jazz-related subjects; from Jazz History to Jazz Improvisation; from Small Jazz Ensemble to Latin Ensemble.

    Mark has performed with jazz artists Mark Murphy, Ray Vega, Don Burrows, and Scott Tinkler; Latino performers Tito Puente Jr. and Wilson Saoko and children’s entertainer Peter Combe. He was pianist for the house band at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2014-2016; he toured with Irish Cabaret star Camille O’Sullivan’s 2015 Helpmann Award winning show Changeling, Beccy Cole and Libby O’Donovan’s 2015 Helpmann Award nominated show The Cowgirl and The Showgirl show and New York-based Cabaret star Lady Rizo’s 2015 show Unescorted. He has also supported Nina Simone, Jose Feliciano, Tuck & Patti, Mike Stern, Martin Taylor and Angelique Kidjo with various groups including his trio.

    Mark co-wrote the music for the musical Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life and has toured as Musical Director with the show across Australia and for performances at the New York Music Theatre Festival, the United Nations in NYC and at 54 Below. In 2015 he was Musical Director for the2015 Channel 9 live TV show Teamkids Easter Appeal and Johanna Allen’s show The Songs That Got Away (the music of Harold Arlen) at the Melbourne Recital Centre and the Noosa Long Weekend Festival.

    Mark’s group Marmalade Jam toured Australia and Singapore for Musica Viva in Schools from 2001-2013. His ensemble Marmalade Circus performed at Carols by Candlelight in Elder Park in 2012 and the Sydney Festival Jazz In the Domain Concert in 2002. He has recorded five albums of predominantly original works with his various Marmalade groups.

    Qualifications

    Master of Music, University of Adelaide.

    Achievements/Awards

    Semi-finalist in the National Jazz Awards in 1999 at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival.

    Commissions

    The Bush Concert for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2015

    The Bush Concert for full orchestra for Symphony Services International 2016

    The song-cycle The Moral of the Story by the SA Primary Schools Music Festival in 2013, which included stories and musical styling from Islamic, Buddhist and Indigenous traditions

    Optimistic: The Radiohead Project for JazzSA’s 2013 remix project

    Whit Dae Ye Cry Thon Yin, the Nexus World Music Series Commission in 2013, featuring new music inspired by his Celtic ancestry

    Gospel Messiah for the ASO in 2007, a re-arrangement of Handel’s Messiah.

     

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Entry last updated: Tuesday, 29 Mar 2022

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