The music of Mark David Boden combines both refinement and elegance with a dark, yet understated, vein of passion. His scores often take extra-musical sources rather than traditional classical forms as a starting point. Their concerns include a subtle preoccupation with the patterns of the natural world and, in his most recent orchestral work, Six Degrees, with the threat of ecological disaster. The music often has a compelling stillness, articulated through a delicate instrumental and harmonic palate though it is not without its own underlying drama.
Peter Reynolds, 2010
Mark David Boden was born in England in May 1986. He graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2008 with a First Class Honours degree in Composition and Contemporary Studies. Whilst at RWCMD, he studied composition with Lynne Plowman and Peter Reynolds in addition to piano with Fazlidden Husanov. Mark continued his studies as a scholar at the Royal College of Music, studying composition at Masters level with Kenneth Hesketh where he was generously supported by the RVW Trust and the Henry Wood Trust. He graduated with Distinction from the MMus course in Advanced Composition in 2011.
During his time at RWCMD, Mark was the recipient of several awards including the Dr David Harries Memorial Award (2006), the Eirwen Thomas Scholarship (2007) and the Composition Prize (2008). He has been awarded a Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal (2008), the LSQ New Music Competition First Prize (2008), the Composer's of Wales William Mathias Composition Prize (2009), The Friends of the Music of St.Giles Cathedral Composition Competition (2010), the British Composer Awards Student Competition (2010) and the University of St. Andrews 600th Anniversary Composition Competition (2011).
Mark's music has been performed across the UK by a variety of different instrumentalists and ensembles including the PM Ensemble, the Ossian Ensemble, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Alissa Firsova and Xenia Pestova (Piano), Kate Price (Cello), and Carla Rees (Alto Flute). In 2011, Mark began a three-year residency with the University of St. Andrews Symphony Orchestra. His music is published by Staunch Music and is soon to be published by ABRSM.
Mark received QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) in 2009 having completed a PGCE in music education. He is a lecturer of music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and a music tutor in the Junior Music and Access Studies department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.