Mark Tanner was born in Bristol in 1963. His first tentative solo appearance at Bristol’s Colston Hall, aptly described as “intrepid” by the Bristol Evening Post, came at the age of 13, and shortly after he appeared on BBC TV, playing Liszt. He studied piano with Gwyn Pritchard, Geoffrey Buckley, Philip Martin and Richard McMahon, gaining his PhD from the Birmingham Conservatoire in 1999. During his studies he took part in numerous masterclasses, John Ogdon offering especial encouragement. He has appeared in many of Britain’s most favoured recital halls, notably five successive appearances at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and St John’s Smith Square in London, and the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea. He has also appeared in a number of prominent educational establishments including the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen (S.O.U.N.D Festival), the RWCMD, Birmingham Conservatoire and recently at Chethams International Summer School for Pianists. With duo partner Allan Schiller Mark was invited to perform at St George’s Bristol  as part of the Mozart 250 celebrations, a venue at which he has appeared on many occasions. Mark's continuing popularity as a recitalist onboard cruise liners has led to around three hundred recitals on the Queen Mary II, the P&O fleet and SAGA fleet. Concerto appearances have included works by Mozart, Beethoven, Saint-Saens and Gershwin.

He has broadcast several premières live on BBC Radio 3 and his recordings have attracted consistently high critical acclaim. Of his York Bowen double-CD, Bryce Morrison of Gramophone wrote in June 2008:

"Most pianists would give an arm and a leg, or at least a finger, to achieve his sumptuous sonority and seamless legato…such enviable breadth and poetic commitment."

GRAMOPHONE 

Mark has for some time held a particular interest in new and neglected British piano music, as is evident from his five recordings for Priory records. A recent CD with flautist Gillian Poznansky (with whom Mark has performed at Wigmore Hall and the Frome Festival as well as on many cruise liners) featured the music of Cornish-based composer, Graham Lynch. This has been broadcast several times on BBC Radio 3 and was selected as an International Record Review 'Outstanding' disc of the month in December 2009; in the same month the disc was an Editor's Choice for PAN Magazine. Mark has done much to promote John McLeod's epic work 'Haflidi's Pictures', which he commissioned with funding from the Scottish Arts Council, Vaughan Williams Trust and Hope Scott Trust in 2008. He premiered the work at Wigmore Hall and went on to give eight further performances in England, Scotland and Wales, often featuring the composer as narrator (and once with singer Benjamin Lupson),  also performing extracts live on BBC Radio 3. The score, edited by Mark, is now available from Europa Edition, and a recording of the work for Priory Records also contains many other premieres and newly commisssioned works by Graham Fitkin, Philip Martin, Frederick Stocken, Colin Decio and Mervyn Burtch. In order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Peter Wishart's death in 2009, Mark produced a recording featuring the Delme Quartet, flautist Christopher Hyde-Smith, clarinettist Michael Langdon-Davies, cellist Richard May and bass-baritone Neal Davies. An earlier recording of Peter Wishart's Complete Music for Piano (featuring Allan Schiiler in the duets, alongside two premieres of works by Constant Lambert) was triggered by a performance at Wigmore Hall, and an edition, by Mark, published in three volumes, is now available from Edition Peters.

Mark is music critic for the prominent music press, having contributed well over 100 reviews and articles for International Record Review, Classical Music, Musical Opinion, International Piano and Piano Professional. He has also published scholarly articles in the USA and UK, including 19^th Century Music and the Liszt Society Journal, and edited several contemporary scores for Edition Peters  and Europa Edition. His eleven-volume series for piano entitled Eye-Tunes (nearly 200 pieces in all) was published in 2009 and 2010 by Spartan Press, and Himalayan Suite (composed for the 70th birthday of celebrated flautist and children's music presenter, Atarah Ben-Tovim MBE) has just been released by the same publisher; there are further volumes of music for flute and piano in the pipeline also. 

Mark is an international examiner of grades and diplomas for ABRSM, having undertaken tours to Beijing, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, India, N. Ireland and Cyprus, alongside numerous tours to Hong Kong and Singapore, with an imminent tour to South Africa. He adjudicates festivals for the British and International Federation of Festivals, three times judged the EPTA Piano Competition and has given many lectures on a diverse range of subjects as well as masterclasses in Europe and mainland China.

For sixteen years Mark was Assistant Director of Music at Taunton School in Somerset; he has been active in music education for 25 years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of Mensa, who have featured him twice in their publications. In 2009 Mark was awarded an honorary degree (Hon.BC) from the Birmingham Conservatoire in recognition of his contribution to the profession.  Mark's first novel, Life on Mars? A Catinel’s Chance, was published by Llama Press, and with the book he has just completed a successful book-signing tour of Waterstone's stores.

In 2011 Mark will be recording more of John McLeod's piano music for Delphian Records and appearing with his newly formed trio (featuring Gillian Poznansky, flute, and Richard May, cello) at St George's Bristol and other venues.

Mark divides his time unequally between Cornwall, Somerset and the rest of the world. Hobbies include eating and sleeping.

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