Mr Mark Ferguson

Mark Simeon Ferguson is a composer, orchestrator, arranger, song-writer, pianist and musical director with jazz as his foundation. He has special interests in contemporary orchestral writing, Afro-Caribbean music, song-writing for upper primary school children and contemporary jazz piano trio music.

Mark was a finalist in the National Jazz Awards in 1999 and in the same year he completed a Master of Music at the University of Adelaide. In 2018 he was co-curator of the International Jazz Day celebrations for the Adelaide Festival Centre. In 2022 he received the APRA AMCOS Luminary Award for South Australia for sustained contribution to Education, Composition and Jazz Performance.

His commissions for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra include the orchestration of Pudnanthi Padninthi (their Kaurna welcome) (2021) and the shows ASO Does Latin with the Marmalade Man (2018), Herman and Rosie (2016) and The Bush Concert (2014) [which has also been performed by the SSO in the Opera House, the MYO in the Recital Centre and the ASO in Harbin, China].

In 2021 he was commissioned, through the ABC Jazz Composer Commissioning Fund to write and record his new project Where Emus Roam the Streets. The album was released in 2022 with a concerts in Elder Hall and the Beltana Progress Hall—Beltana is the 'ghost town' at the centre of the project.  In 2020 he released his sixth album, Songs From an Imperfect World on the Wizardtone Label.

He composed the theme song for Six Foot Something's production The Alphabet of Awesome Science touring Australia 2022 and composed the music for their 2022 production You Are A Doughnut. He created the song cycles The Moral of the Story (2013) and Next Stop North Terrace (2018) for the SA Public Primary Schools Music Festival. 

As a pianist Mark has performed with Rufus Wainwright, Mark Murphy, Tina Arena, Paul Capsis, Lady Rizo, Vika and Linda Bull and Ray Vega.  He has been Musical Director for shows for Johanna Allen, Camille O’Sullivan (including her Helpmann Award-winning Changeling tour), UNSUNG (the Frank Ford Commission for Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2018) the Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s 2022 Variety Gala, 2021 Opening Gala, 2017 and 2018 Closing Gala, the AFC’s 2018 Walk of Fame Gala and QPAC’s 2019 Songs of Hope and Healing. In 2022 he was Musical Director/arranger/pianist/backing vocalist for two new major shows in Adelaide Cabaret Festival: Tina Arena's Songs My Mother Taught Me at Her Majesty's Theatre (also featuring Lior, Wendy Matthews, Sophie Koh, Thando and Jess Hitchcock), and Lou Blackwell's  show Love on the Left Bank, in the Dunstan Playhouse.

In 2020 he arranged songs for the Australian String Quartet’s Ukaria livestream broadcast.

Mark’s latin-jazz ensemble Marmalade Circus has recorded five albums and performed at the Manly and Thredbo Jazz Festivals and the Sydney Festival.

His first major tours were with children’s entertainer Peter Combe in 1993. Mark then toured Australia and Singapore in his own ensemble Marmalade Jam for Musica Viva in Schools from 2002-2013.

Currently Mark is Head of Jazz in the Elder Conservatorium. He lectured in Jazz History for 15 years, Jazz Improvisation for 20 years, and currently lectures in Jazz Musicianship (commencing 2016), Jazz Piano (commencing 1992), Latin Jazz Ensemble (commencing 2009) and Jazz Arranging (commencing 2020). He led the inaugural Jazz Study tour to New York City and Washington DC in February 2020.