Mark Xiao

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mark has won numerous competitions and awards throughout Australia including the Leslie Barklamb Scholarships, the 3MBS Young Performer of the Year Award and the Australian Youth Classical Music Competition. In 2006, he was the winner of the Open Flute Competition at the Australian Flute Festival. Internationally, Mark was the recipient of the British Flute Society Award, the Zangger-Weber Stiftung from Switzerland and in 2012, he received the Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the August-Everding Music Competition in Munich, Germany.

Mark began learning the flute at the age of 10. At the age of 13, he received his AMusA and in the following year, Mark received his LMusA with Distinction. Since then, Mark has obtained a Bachelor of Music Performance from the Australian National University, a Master of Music Performance and Specialised Master of Music (Soloist) from the Zurich University of the Arts and a Master of Music in Contemporary Music from the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich whilst studying with several internationally renowned teachers including Virginia Taylor, Vernon Hill, Trevor Wye, Matthias Ziegler and Andrea Lieberknecht.

Mark was a guest member of the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich and has collaborated with numerous notable composers and conductors including Helmut Lachenmann, Beat Furrer, William Blank, Heinz Holliger, Kent Nagano, Lionel Bringuier, Roland Kluttig, Zsolt Nagy, David Zinman, Werner Ehrhardt and Douglas Boyd. As a soloist, Mark has performed with the Bach Collegium München in Germany, and the Filharmonie Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic.

Mark has been teaching and performing throughout Australia since returning in 2017. He was the Artist-in-Residence at Flutes & Flutists until the end of 2022, when he assumed the role of Managing Director. Mark is now a Director of the Australian Flute Festival and President of the Flute Society of NSW.