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Mark Penman was born in Brisbane and has been singing all his life; from primary school choirs, through high school music theatre and studying music at the University of Queensland to the stage of the Opera House in Sydney.

Mark has a successful career as a freelance singer. He was a principal artist with Opera Queensland before moving to Sydney to sing full time with Opera Australia. Mark has performed many times with the Qld Symphony Orchestra, the Qld Theatre Company, Qld Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brisbane Biennial and the Qld Arts Council. His most recent operatic role was as the Marriage Commissioner in Madama Butterfly.

Mark's popular repertoire includes Beatles, Bacharach, Elvis, jazz and blues, rock and roll, country, the hits of Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Michael Buble and many Aussie classics. Mark has a singing repertoire that spans the entire 20th century: Scottish and Irish folk songs, songs from Broadway hits, Gilbert and Sullivan, hits of the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties and ballads from every era.

Mark has also performed in many Broadway shows in Brisbane and Sydney including Hello Dolly, Annie The Musical, A Chorus Line, Oklahoma, Showboat, The Merry Widow, South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate, The Student Prince, The Music Man and Die Fledermaus. He has toured throughout Queensland in The Best of Broadway for the Qld Arts Council and throughout Australia, the USA and SE Asia with the vocal sextet Jones and Co. He was the bass singer in the Australian Champion Barbershop Quartet – Southern Cross – from 1998 to 2002. Mark is now the bass singer in Benchmark - finalists in Australia's Got Talent and Gold Medal winning Australian Barbershop Champions.

Mark sang with the a cappella sextet Jones & Co for 6 years, touring throughout Australia, New Zealand, the USA and SE Asia and also with Southern Cross – Australia's Champion Barbershop Quartet (1998-2002). His most recent operatic role was as the Marriage Commissioner in Madama Butterfly. Mark was with the St Johns Cathedral Choir in Brisbane and at Morning Melodies.

Mark returned to the University of Queensland in 2004 to study for a Graduate Diploma in Music Therapy and is now registered to practice as a music therapist. He works mainly in aged care facilities providing MT sessions for groups and individuals and in private practice specialising in dementia. Mark also provides MT sessions to individuals and groups in their homes.

He is the proud father of four daughters, one of whom is also a music therapist. Two daughters are school music teachers and the fourth a music theatre performer.

• registered music therapist • accredited music teacher • accomplished professional musician • 25 years experience