"My desire to compose strong melodies is one of the driving forces in my composition process. Melody is probably the part of film music that I am most attracted to. Music that is melodically strong often grabs my emotions in the most wonderful way."
- Mark McKenzie in 1999

Mark McKenzie was born in Lake City, Minnesota, and as his parents loved music they made sure that each of their seven children studied piano and practiced at least an hour a day. As he entered high school he became engrossed in classical music, particularly J.S. Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin. He also became very interested in the music of rock bands like Yes, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake & Palmer and others spending every free minute listening to music, playing the piano, organ, French horn, recorder, and to some degree the guitar. Attending the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire, he studied music composition as well as English literature. After earning his Bachelors degree in music composition he moved to L.A. in 1979 and finished both his Masters and his Doctorate in music composition at the University of Southern California.

During those years he was especially enanored with the music of Bartok, Stravinsky, Webern, and Vaughn Williams. In addition to his music studies, McKenzie also read as much as he could, getting a doctoral emphasis in American literature. He finished his formal composition studies in 1984 and was awarded the distinction "Outstanding Doctoral Graduate of the Year" by the USC faculty. After being invited by the music faculty to stay on, he taught part-time courses in 20th Century compositional techniques, music theory, counterpoint, orchestration and aural skills while at the same time beginning a career in film music. After meeting Bruce Broughton at USC and orchestrating his music, McKenzie soon orchestrated for composers such as Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, Cliff Eidelman, Marc Shaiman, John Barry, Basil Poledouris, James Newton Howard and Randy Edelman.

Since beginning his own scoring career in 1991, McKenzie has received a number of composition awards in the concert music arena, including the Hans J. Salter Award for his Chamber Symphony I, the Grand Prize in the International Horn Society's Composition contest for his horn octet Zao, and an honorable mention in the Fargo Symphony Contest for his symphony Threnody for the Innocent Infants. His children's symphonic work "The Lion and the Mouse" has received performances with orchestras across both the US and Europe. After 2000, he was recognized particularly for his music for small religious films, highlighted by The Greatest Miracle in 2011.