John Mark Ainsley was born in Cheshire and began his musical training in Oxford. His extensive international concert work includes the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst, Boston Symphony under Ozawa, Vienna Philharmonic under Norrington, Pinnock and Welser-Möst, London Symphony under Sir Colin Davis and Previn, Berlin Philharmonic under Haitink and Rattle and the New York Philharmonic under Masur.
His discography covers the baroque and classical repertoire, the German Lied, English song and the American musical. His recording of On Wenlock Edge for Hyperion was nominated for a Gramophone award. Operatic engagements include both Bajazet in Tamerlano and the title role in Idomeneo at the Munich Festival, The Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River in Frankfurt, Skuratov in Janácek From the House of the Dead at La Scala, Milan and the Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam and Vienna Festivals, Hippolyt in the world premiere of Henze’s Phaedra in Berlin and Brussels, his first Captain Vere in Billy Budd in Frankfurt, Emilio in Partenope for English National Opera, L’Upupa for the Semperoper Dresden and Billy Budd at the Glyndebourne Festival.
John Mark won the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Singer Award.