Mark Hayes
Mark Hayes grew up in a richly musical environment, beginning piano lessons at age ten and developing early skills in improvisation. A magna cum laude graduate of Baylor University with a B.M. in piano performance, Hayes discovered his passion for composing and arranging during his college years. Today he is an internationally recognized composer, conductor, and concert pianist whose career has taken him across Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa, and Canada.
His award-winning music - over 2,000 published works - appears in church, university, and community music libraries around the world. Known for his signature American sound, Hayes draws from gospel, jazz, pop, folk, and classical styles. His output spans solo piano, vocal solo, choral, multiple-piano works, orchestra, jazz combo, and instrumental ensembles. He is frequently commissioned and regularly featured at ACDA, MENC, and Chorus America conventions. The Grammy Award-winning Kansas City Chorale has recorded several of his major works.
Hayes has released more than 25 solo piano recordings and is a favorite among church pianists worldwide. He is a recurring ASCAP Standard Award recipient, and his album I’ve Just Seen Jesus received a Dove Award. Baylor University honored him with its Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music, and he is a first-place winner in the John Ness Beck Foundation composition competition.
His theatrical work includes arranging and orchestrating the award-winning Civil War Voices and creating the musical We’ll Meet Again, which premiered in Savannah in 2022 and toured the Southeast in 2023.
Hayes frequently conducts his large-scale works at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, including premieres of his Te Deum, Magnificat, The American Spirit, and Requiem, with international performances in Rome and Brasília. His Kindness: A Chorale and Fugue in the Baroque Tradition received its world premiere at David Geffen Hall in New York City.
Whether concertizing worldwide or composing at home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark Hayes continues his mission: “to create beautiful music for the world.”
