Biography

Mark Reeves is based in Horsham in West Sussex. He learnt to read music from the age of seven whilst learning to play the descant recorder at Chesworth Junior School in Horsham. At nine years old he progressed to playing the trumpet and at the age of twelve he began having piano lessons with Joyce Barlow, LRAM, GRSM, MRST at Collyer's Grammar School (now Collyer's College) in Horsham.

After passing various GCE 'O' levels and 'A' levels, Mark went on to study fine art (photography and painting) and music (electronic music with Billy Cowie and piano with John Walker) at Brighton Polytechnic (now Brighton University), attaining a BA (Hons) Degree in Expressive Arts.

After graduating he went on to play keyboards in various bands (Birds With Ears, Still Life, Retrospect, The Rhythm Method). With Still Life he released three singles and performed at many venues around the UK, occasionally with major chart acts of the day (Culture Club/Boy George, Midnight Oil, Sad Café).

Following on from that period Mark turned his attention to performing, composing and arranging music with other songwriters and performers including Russell White, Natalie C and Lucy White.

Mark now gives piano lessons six days and evenings a week and performs regularly as a solo pianist at private functions such as civil wedding ceremonies and wedding receptions, silver and golden wedding anniversary dinners, birthday parties, engagement parties and corporate events. He is also an accompanying pianist for vocalists (Cliff Levene, Easy Livin', It Takes Two, Sarah Esser, John Noyce, Dianne Walters, The Pleasure Singers, The Millennium Voices) and numerous instrumentalists.

In his spare time, as a voluntary worker for the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust (NHS), Mark entertains Horsham Hospital patients and retirement home residents with his piano playing.

In March 2005 Mark joined the Crawley Millennium Concert Band and the Crawley Millennium Big Band as their keyboard player, which involves playing bass parts as well as piano, church organ, jazz/rock organ, harpsichord, guitar, harp, strings, mallet percussion (vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel) and various percussion instruments (tambourine, triangle, cabassa and castanets), although not necessarily all at the same time!

Both bands performed at sell-out concerts in Ezstergom and Gyula in Hungary during the first week in August 2006 and their 2008 concert tour in Rome, Italy was a huge success also. Their 2006 CD "Millennium Live" is available via the CMCB Web site at www.cmcband.co.uk or at any of their concerts - they perform at various events throughout the year in the Crawley and Horsham area of West Sussex.

This photo was taken in Ezstergom, Hungary in August 2006 at the end of a concert given by Crawley Millennium Concert Band. A bouquet of flowers is being presented to Mark after having just performed his own arrangement of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 for piano and concert band.