About

Australian saxophonist and woodwind performer Mark Phillips currently resides in New York City.

Before leaving Australia at the age of 23, Mark had performed with groups including The Australian Army Band, The Victoria Police Showband, The Australian Cotton Club Orchestra, Rob Simone Big Band, and had twice performed as a soloist on 3MBS 103.5FM radio. In 2009, he completed his degree in classical saxophone at the University of Melbourne under the tutelage of Ian Godfrey, Michael Lichnovsky and Barry Cockcroft.

Relocating to New York City in 2011 to pursue a jazz education, Mark studied privately with some of his musical idols, including Vincent Herring ,Andrew Sterman and Mark Vinci and began slowly building his path to being an active member of the New York jazz scene. He has performed with Ed Palermo Big Band, Greg Ruvolo Big Band, Silver Arrow Band, Afro Bop Alliance Big Band, Valery Ponomorov Big Band, Fleur Seule Latin Big Band, Rebecca Perl, and many others. As an avid 'doubler' on flutes and clarinets, Mark has performed on Off-Broadway, live WNYC radio, on the HBO series ‘VINYL’ , with Iranian pop singer Shahkar, and supported artists including Olivia Newton-John, Gavin Degraw and Aaron Carter. In 2018 Mark played clarinet and flute on the very unique album from E Scott Lindner: 'Port of Dreams'

More recently, Mark’s primary focus has been on performing with The Queen's Cartoonists, a 6-piece jazz band of which he is a founding member. Lead by pianist/composer Dr. Joel Pierson, the group performs virtuosic comedic arrangements of music from classic cartoons synced with projections. The Queen's Cartoonists were signed to CAMI Music in early 2019, and have had feature articles on Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Queens Courier, The News Review (Iowa) and on NPR. The group continue to perform across the United State at Performing Arts Centers, jazz festivals, Arts Conferences as well as providing educational outreach for schools and colleges. In 2017 they performed along side the New York Philharmonic after turning some heads with their quirky arrangement of Dvorak’s 9th Symphony!

As an educator, Mark currently teaches at schools in both Queens and Long Island, and formally worked as music director of a Middle School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In 2015, he worked as a teaching artist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens. 

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Mark is an endorsing artist for D'Addario reeds, and Selmer Paris Saxophones 

Instruments:

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Mark uses D'Addario reeds on all instruments

Alto Saxophone

Selmer Super Balanced Action 52,xxx

Selmer Soloist (Short Shank)

Silverstein Ligature

Tenor Saxophone 

Selmer Mark VI 223,xxx

D'Addario Jazz Select 8*

Silverstein Ligature

Soprano Saxophone

Buescher True Tone Silver Curved, 1923

Selmer Super Session F

Silverstein Ligature

Clarinet

Conn Model 324 N Rubber, 1938

Gregory Smith 1++

Silverstein Ligature

Flute

Haynes Commercial Closed Hole, 23,xxx (1954)

Piccolo

Gemeinhardt 4W