Mark Payne has had a multi-faceted career spanning several genres and disciplines.  His versatile tenor voice has been featured in opera, oratorio, and music theatre throughout North America, while his skills at the piano have seen him perform in recital, chamber settings, and as soloist with orchestra. 
 
In recent years, he has been in demand as a music director, and has written numerous arrangements for piano trio, orchestra, and vocal ensembles.  Mark has worked as singer, coach and pianist with The Calgary Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Canadian Opera Company, and The San Francisco Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera, to name a few, and has worked with many of Canada's greatest and upcoming opera singers. 

  
Currently, he is the head vocal coach and music director for the opera program at University of Western Ontario.  This school season, he will be the head coach for the production of “Die Fledermaus”, as well as the music director for “South Pacific” and the operatic scenes program in March.

Mark is equally at home in musical theatre, and has spent the last three seasons as the music director for the Starbright Summer Festival (2009-2011) at the Imperial Theatre in Sarnia, Ontario.  He has music directed 8 shows, for which he also wrote and arranged the orchestrations.  During this most recent summer festival, Mark wrote and starred in his own show, “Simply Grand”, earning critical and popular acclaim for his performance.  If you missed the performances of “Simply Grand” in Sarnia, you can still experience highlights from the show by purchasing the CD here.  Just go to the Discography page, and place an order.

In the fall, he will be teaching two performance courses (Vocal Repertory, and Collaborative Musicianship for pianists and orchestral instrumentalists) for students at the Faculty of Music at UWO, as well as his regular duties with the opera.  In addition, Mark will be travelling to Saskatoon to conduct the symphony there for “Broadway Heroes” starring David Rogers.  In December, he will once again music direct Starbright’s Christmas production, which he has done for the past five years.

Mark also works as the music director/organist/pianist for The Anglican Church of the Ascension, in London, Ontario, where he has been for 6 years.

Finally, he is a member of the acclaimed ensemble “TriofuS”, a piano, bassoon, clarinet trio, along with fellow colleagues and friends David Haward and Robert Riseling.  TriofuS has recorded two CDs, and is currently planning a third release.  This ensemble has commissioned many fine works by Canadian composers, and is a huge proponent of new music for this instrumental combination.

Mark has released many recordings, ranging from solo classical piano to a vocal CD of inspirational favourites, with everything else in between.  Check out the Discography link above to access audio samples, and purchase some of his most current releases.