Creative Scotland winner 2003, Mark O'Keeffe has held the post of principal trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra since December 1996. He is a native of County Cork, Ireland, where he began his musical studies at the age of seven. After playing in the local brass band and receiving trumpet lessons from his father, his love of the trumpet developed. Formal lessons at the Cork School of Music and the Royal Northern College of music were taken, and Mark was chosen in 1992 as the winner of the RTE Musician of the Future competition. On his return to Ireland later that year, he was appointed associate principal trumpet of the National Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for four years.
Over the past ten years he has appeared as soloist with the BBC SSO on a number of occasions performing new works by Judith Bingham, Mark Anthony Turnage, Thea Musgrave and Tansy Davies, as well as concertos by Telemann, Hummel and Shostakovich. Mark has recently commissioned new solo trumpet works by Scottish composers John Maxwell Geddes, Jennifer Martin and Anthea Haddow. In addition to his career with the BBC SSO, he is a committed chamber musician playing in several ensembles that share his passion for performing new music. His teachers have included Murray Greig, John Wallace and Bo Nilsson.
Mark O'Keeffe teaches at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow where he has just completed, with distinction, a master degree in trumpet performance.
EVENTS in 2007
with Mark O'Keeffe
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