Mark Hartt-Palmer - Leader
Mark became Leader of the CSO in 2000, succeeding William Dickson.
He studied the violin locally with Samuel Coates and subsequently continued under Frances Mason at the Royal College of Music where he studied violin, viola and piano. Mark is well-known as a soloist, recitalist, conductor, arranger and musical director.
Solo performances have included the concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Sibelius, and Elgar. He gave one of the first performances of the Coleridge-Taylor concerto by an amateur orchestra in the Chichester Festivities 2006, and gave the Canadian première of the work with the Divertimento Orchestra in April 2008.
As a recitalist, Mark has played for many years as a duo with Richard Barnes - notable features of their partnership being a recital series in Portsmouth’s Menuhin Room and a concert at Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford. As a duo, they specialise in exploring little-known English Romantic repertoire, recently performing Stanford's 2nd and Parry's 3rd Violin Sonatas as part of the Cathedral Lunchtime Series in February 2009.
Mark has also worked with Richard Barnes' publishing company Cathedral Music, engraving the first publications of Stanford's 2nd Violin Sonata and Stanford's 6th Symphony - the latter being performed by the CSO in their Festivities 2008 concert.
Mark is currently the Musical Director of the Petersfield Theatre Company (formerly the Petersfield Operatic Society and Petersfield Hi-Lights), and their recent performances of Guys and Dolls received critical acclaim. He will conduct their forcoming performances of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and The Merry Widow in November 2009 and May 2010.
As an arranger, Mark has re-orchestrated several Gilbert and Sullivan operas for reduced forces, which have been performed in the UK, the USA and Germany. His orchestrations of two Debussy Preludes were performed by the CSO in 2006.