Mark Menzies
Residing in the United States since 1991, Mark Menzies has established an important, world-wide reputation as a new music violist and violinist. He has been described in a Los Angeles Times review, as an 'extraordinary musician' and a 'riveting violinist.' His career as a viola and violin virtuoso, chamber musician and conductor and advocate of contemporary music, has seen performances in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and across the United States, including a series of appearances at New York's Carnegie Hall.
Mark Menzies is renowned for performing and more recently conducting some of the most complex scores so far written and he has been personally recommended by composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds, Michael Finnissy, Vinko Globokar, Philippe Manoury, Jim Gardner, Elliott Carter, Liza Lim, Christian Wolff, Richard Barrett and Sofia Gubaidulina for performances he has given of their music. An early success was performing at the Lutoslawksi Festival in London (1989) and subsequent highlights have included appearances at the Ojai Festival 2000, at the June in Buffalo 1996/9 and 2000 festivals, the Mirror of the New Festival in Hawai'i 1997, as featured guest soloist in the 09/03 International Festival (of new music) in Auckland, New Zealand, 2003, and the Dartington Festival in Great Britain, 2007 and 2008.
Mark Menzies has a considerable reputation as a chamber music performer. A member of the Formalist Quartet as violinist and violist, the first five seasons of the quartet has seen touring across the US, a number of recordings, including the world premiere recording of Art Jarvinen’s epic string quartet recorded at the Lou Harrison bale-house; the quartet has established a stellar reputation in its performances of both 16th and 17th ensemble music, as well as repertoire of the last hundred or so years.
Further CD recordings of Mark Menzies includes Process and Passion, a Pogus label release of chamber music by Roger Reynolds, as well as the world premiere recording of ...above earth's shadow by Michael Finnissy yet to be released. He is conductor on the premiere recording of Anne LeBaron’s dance opera, Pope Joan.
In 2002 Mark Menzies established an ensemble called inauthentica, which is based in Los Angeles. Frequently a conductor for the collective, recordings have been released on the innova label, especially an album of Mark Applebaum’s recent compositions, and several featuring music from Stanford University. inauthentica’s recording of Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire, however, is one of the few releases that is unconducted.
Mark Menzies is currently viola and violin professor at the California Institute of the Arts where he also coordinates their chamber orchestra, new music ensembles and conducting studies. Over the last four seasons, he has designed and performed a significant role in CalArts New Century Players’ concerts at redcat, CalArt’s downtown theater as part of the Disney Hall complex: respectively these were Friendly monsters from the boot (featuring recent music from Italy, including the US premiere of Luigi Nono’s Guai e gelidi mostri); a Festival of contemporary Dutch music music; the US premiere of Gerard Grisey’s Les espaces acoustique as part of a two-concert look at recent spectralism; and lastly, in 2011, a 5-concert festival of Sofia Gubaidulina’s music–in her presence–that, as one critic described the final concert, ‘...the building tension paid off with a huge reward in the closing full orchestra performance of Gubaidulina’s violin concerto Offertorium with soloist Mark Menzies and the full force of the CalArts Orchestra’.
Mark Menzies is renowned for performing and more recently conducting some of the most complex scores so far written and he has been personally recommended by composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds, Michael Finnissy, Vinko Globokar, Philippe Manoury, Jim Gardner, Elliott Carter, Liza Lim, Christian Wolff, Richard Barrett and Sofia Gubaidulina for performances he has given of their music. An early success was performing at the Lutoslawksi Festival in London (1989) and subsequent highlights have included appearances at the Ojai Festival 2000, at the June in Buffalo 1996/9 and 2000 festivals, the Mirror of the New Festival in Hawai'i 1997, as featured guest soloist in the 09/03 International Festival (of new music) in Auckland, New Zealand, 2003, and the Dartington Festival in Great Britain, 2007 and 2008.
Mark Menzies has a considerable reputation as a chamber music performer. A member of the Formalist Quartet as violinist and violist, the first five seasons of the quartet has seen touring across the US, a number of recordings, including the world premiere recording of Art Jarvinen’s epic string quartet recorded at the Lou Harrison bale-house; the quartet has established a stellar reputation in its performances of both 16th and 17th ensemble music, as well as repertoire of the last hundred or so years.
Further CD recordings of Mark Menzies includes Process and Passion, a Pogus label release of chamber music by Roger Reynolds, as well as the world premiere recording of ...above earth's shadow by Michael Finnissy yet to be released. He is conductor on the premiere recording of Anne LeBaron’s dance opera, Pope Joan.
In 2002 Mark Menzies established an ensemble called inauthentica, which is based in Los Angeles. Frequently a conductor for the collective, recordings have been released on the innova label, especially an album of Mark Applebaum’s recent compositions, and several featuring music from Stanford University. inauthentica’s recording of Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire, however, is one of the few releases that is unconducted.
Mark Menzies is currently viola and violin professor at the California Institute of the Arts where he also coordinates their chamber orchestra, new music ensembles and conducting studies. Over the last four seasons, he has designed and performed a significant role in CalArts New Century Players’ concerts at redcat, CalArt’s downtown theater as part of the Disney Hall complex: respectively these were Friendly monsters from the boot (featuring recent music from Italy, including the US premiere of Luigi Nono’s Guai e gelidi mostri); a Festival of contemporary Dutch music music; the US premiere of Gerard Grisey’s Les espaces acoustique as part of a two-concert look at recent spectralism; and lastly, in 2011, a 5-concert festival of Sofia Gubaidulina’s music–in her presence–that, as one critic described the final concert, ‘...the building tension paid off with a huge reward in the closing full orchestra performance of Gubaidulina’s violin concerto Offertorium with soloist Mark Menzies and the full force of the CalArts Orchestra’.
