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Draft:Mark O'Leary

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Mark O'Leary
Occupation(s)musician, composer, author

Mark O'Leary (Cork, is an Irish guitarist and composer.[1]

Biography

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Mark O'Leary is a Cork-born guitarist, author, recording artist, composer, video producer and composer of electronic music. He attended the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, where his classmates included John Frusciante. Mark was a session guitarist at fifteen, sixteen, everything; speed metal, pet shop boys, pop, post-punk, new wave, fusion, blues, rock. He has also worked with former members of Thin Lizzy, Jonny Greenwood's band, and performed in Duo with Tomasz Stanko at the Titanic bar, the final sailing destination of the RMS Titanic, and in several successful concerts with iconic Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen. Mark played in the first (first generation) speed metal group in Cork, the first free jazz group, the first fusion group, and produced the first installation of an ambient soundscape. He has also performed with all the members of the iconic Ganelin group. He also plays electronic music that he calls Post-Kraftwerk-derived, and is also influenced by Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. At the age of 11 he turned to the guitar. At eighteen he was asked by Louis Stewart to join his group Five Guitars. He is also an electronic music artist and producer, with interests in: fashion, art, culture and design. He was a child prodigy in primary school and wrote poems, verses, plays, stories and liner notes for his albums, as well as an unpublished corpus of other literary works; novellas, poetry, mainly short stories on a variety of subjects; fiction based on facts, facts based on fiction, fiction based on fiction, facts based on facts, with a penchant for Proust.

He was the guitar and music teacher of Oscar-winning Best Actor, Cillian Murphy. He played with Kenny Wheeler, toured Europe several times as a member of Paul Bleys Trio and played with Bill Bruford as well as Jack DeJohnette, Peter Erskine, Joey Baron, Sunny Murray and Han Bennink. The release of numerous CDs, initially with a trio, and since 2008 also in a quartet[2], ensured his international breakthrough. O'Leary also formed the Underground Jazz Trio with Matthew Lux and John Herndon. He has performed in 30 countries and has also appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival. He is considered by some to be the most technically gifted and innovative guitarist Ireland has ever produced.[3]

O'Leary is also an electronic composer who creates soundscapes that can be described as post-industrial ambient and is considered a multi-genre composer.[3] He has also collaborated with Günter Müller and performed his contemporary classical compositions with the Cikada String Quartet.

Discography

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  1. ^ Cf. Mark O'Leary: Signs (Linernotes). Allmusic gives his birth year as 1970. Archived on 11 June 2024.
  2. ^ Michael J. West (25 April 2019). "Mark O'Leary : On the Shore". JazzTimes. Archived from the original on 2021-06-21. Retrieved 24-02-2021. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  3. ^ a b "www.loftkoeln.de". Archived from the original on 2019-05-30. Retrieved 24-02-2021. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)