Mark Nixon is a graduate of the University of Cape Town, University of South Africa (UNISA), the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. His teachers have included Laura Searle, Lamar Crowson, Håkon Austbø and Graham Johnson. From 2000 – 2002 he was the Anthony Saltmarsh Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music.
Mark has received many prestigious awards, including first prizes in the Adolph Hallis Piano Competition in 1994 and the Nederburg-UNISA National Piano Competition in 1998. In 1997 he was awarded the two most sought-after scholarships in the country: the SAMRO Scholarship for Pianists and the UNISA PJ Lemmer Scholarship for Performers. In 2000 he was selected a ‘Young Concert Artist’ (solo piano) of the National Federation of Music Societies in the United Kingdom (now known as ‘Making Music’). In 2008 he was again selected, this time as a duo with the soprano Erica Eloff.
He has performed as concerto soloist with all the South African orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and with several orchestras in England. As solo recitalist and pianist-accompanist he has appeared extensively in South Africa as well as at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Linbury Theatre Covent Garden in London as well as at numerous music societies across the UK.
In 1999 he won the Guildhall School’s Schubert and Ireland Prizes and the accompanist’s prize in the English Singers and Speakers Union Song Competition in London. In 2006 he won the accompanist’s prize at the Great Elm Vocal Awards held at Wigmore Hall, London.
Engagements have included concerts in Holland, France, Britain and recital tours of South Africa with various singers and instrumentalists in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2012. He is a busy chamber musician, often collaborates with singers in art song repertoire, is part of the King’s Piano Trio and is a founding member of London Song Circle. Also a dedicated and busy teacher, he lives in London and is Head of Keyboard at King’s College School, Wimbledon.
In 2010 he released a CD of songs by Grieg, Wolf, Rachmaninov, Wilding and de Villiers in collaboration with the soprano Erica Eloff. In 2012 he launched a CD of works for solo piano by Liszt, Brahms and Debussy on Stringwise Records. Both recordings were extremely well received in the press and are often to be heard on Classic FM and Fine Music Radio.
Recent performances have included solo recitals in South Africa, collaborative work with singers and the King’s Piano Trio in the UK, as well as a performance of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto in St Alban’s Cathedral.
