Mark Papworth
Mark Papworth is a Melbourne tram driver and highly accomplished horn player. At home on baroque, natural and modern instruments, he studied in Melbourne, Perth and the United States.
Mark Papworth began learning the horn at Winchelsea Primary School with Brian Blackett, then completed high school at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School with Russell Davis. He moved to Perth to study at the University of Western Australia with Darryl Poulsen. There he developed a strong interest in historical performance practice on the Classical and Baroque horn, and performed major works by Wagner and Mahler with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
After graduating he studied Baroque and Classical horn at Indiana University with Richard Seraphinoff. He regularly performs with orchestras and in chamber music on the Baroque, Classical and modern horns, and formed the chamber group Bonza Brass with Per Forsberg.
He plays an Alexander 308 horn; on tracks 3, 4, 10 and 12 of Siegfried’s Story (MCD 597) he uses a Wagner tuba provided courtesy of Sandra McColl.
Mark Papworth is featured on the following titles
Evenings with the French Horn
Mark Papworth (natural and valved horns) and Rosa Scaffidi (piano) play Berlioz and Blanc in repertoire that sets the two French horn types of the late nineteenth century side by side.
Arranger
New Wine in an Old Bottle
Mark Papworth on natural horn and Amanda Millar on piano and cello present New Wine in an Old Bottle, new sonatas for natural horn by Australian composer Thomas McConochie, cast in a neo-classical style that recalls the pre-valve golden age of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
Siegfried's Story
"Brassy revamp for Wagner" (The Age, 29 April 2020). Mark Papworth’s arrangement of highlights from Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung for horn, tuba and piano traces the cycle as chamber drama.
Arranger