Mary Cuffy

For 27-year-old Mark Haynes, mu­sic has al­ways been more than melody; it has been a ve­hi­cle for trans­for­ma­tion. The Trinida­di­an dou­ble bassist has once again placed his home­land on the map, se­cur­ing a pres­ti­gious Doc­tor of Mu­si­cal Arts (DMA) de­gree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mi­a­mi’s Frost School of Mu­sic, ac­com­pa­nied by a full tu­ition schol­ar­ship and the high­ly cov­et­ed Hen­ry Manci­ni In­sti­tute (HMI) Per­for­mance Fel­low­ship.

Haynes’s jour­ney from the class­rooms of St Ann’s to the con­ser­va­to­ries of the Unit­ed States is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of dis­ci­pline, ed­u­ca­tion, and the un­wa­ver­ing sup­port of a com­mu­ni­ty. Born and raised in Port-of-Spain, his mu­si­cal foun­da­tion was laid in 2012 when he was se­lect­ed as one of the top five stu­dents at St Ann’s RC Pri­ma­ry School to re­ceive a full schol­ar­ship through the Holis­tic Mu­sic School Caribbean Net­work Arts and Ed­u­ca­tion Pro­gram.

That ear­ly in­vest­ment yield­ed re­turns far be­yond ex­pec­ta­tions. Af­ter at­tend­ing St Fran­cis Boys’ Col­lege and grad­u­at­ing with a Bach­e­lor’s De­gree in Fine Arts from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (UTT-APA), Haynes did not sim­ply col­lect his de­grees and move on. In­stead, he chose to pour back in­to the soil that nur­tured him.

Dur­ing his un­der­grad­u­ate years and be­yond, Haynes be­came a fa­mil­iar face at Holis­tic Pri­ma­ry School and St Ann’s RC, teach­ing mu­sic the­o­ry and in­stru­men­tal stud­ies. He lat­er served as a mu­sic in­struc­tor at the British Acad­e­my and Rose­wood-Tri­mont Col­lege, prov­ing that his ded­i­ca­tion to the arts was matched on­ly by his com­mit­ment to the next gen­er­a­tion.

“His pro­fes­sion­al tra­jec­to­ry has been noth­ing short of me­te­oric. Af­ter join­ing the Na­tion­al Phil­har­mon­ic Or­ches­tra of Trinidad and To­ba­go in 2018, his tal­ent saw him rise from sec­tion dou­ble bassist to Prin­ci­pal Dou­ble Bass by 2021.”

His rep­u­ta­tion crossed in­ter­na­tion­al bor­ders in the sum­mer of 2023 when he was in­vit­ed to the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ci­ety of Bassists Con­ven­tion in the US as a pre­sen­ter. There, he ad­vo­cat­ed for ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty to in­stru­ments and ed­u­ca­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al mem­bers, a cause close to his heart. That plat­form led to a life-chang­ing con­nec­tion with a pro­fes­sor who en­cour­aged him to ap­ply for a Mas­ter’s de­gree at Penn State Uni­ver­si­ty.

With­in weeks, Haynes au­di­tioned and was award­ed a full schol­ar­ship and teach­ing as­sist­ant­ship. He grad­u­at­ed in 2025, hav­ing ex­pand­ed his or­ches­tral ex­pe­ri­ence with the Williamsport Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra, the Al­toona Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra, and the Penn­syl­va­nia Cham­ber Or­ches­tra.

Now, Haynes is poised for his great­est chal­lenge yet: his doc­tor­al stud­ies. The HMI Per­for­mance Fel­low­ship at the Frost School of Mu­sic is a sig­nif­i­cant ho­n­our, recog­nis­ing his dual ex­cel­lence as a per­former and an ed­u­ca­tor. How­ev­er, de­spite this sub­stan­tial aca­d­e­m­ic sup­port cov­er­ing 100% of his tu­ition, Haynes faces the re­al­i­ty of in­ter­na­tion­al stu­dent re­stric­tions that lim­it his abil­i­ty to work dur­ing his first year.

To bridge the gap for es­sen­tial liv­ing ex­pens­es, Haynes is turn­ing to the com­mu­ni­ty that has sup­port­ed him since he was a child.

For Haynes, this pur­suit is not just about per­son­al ac­co­lades. It is about cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment and set­ting a prece­dent for what is pos­si­ble for young Caribbean mu­si­cians.

“The best way to en­cour­age some­one is by set­ting an ex­am­ple,” Haynes shared. “I hope that my jour­ney will be that ex­am­ple to in­spire young mu­si­cians across Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean to pur­sue their dreams through dis­ci­pline, per­se­ver­ance, and ded­i­ca­tion to their craft.”

As he pre­pares to em­bark on this new chap­ter, Haynes re­mains a bea­con of hope, prov­ing that with tal­ent and tenac­i­ty, the notes played in a small is­land class­room can even­tu­al­ly res­onate on the world’s grand­est stages.