He received his Bachelor of Music (BM) degree from the University of British Columbia in 1995; studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal in 1997; received a Master of Music (MM) from the University of Sydney, Australia, where he studied with Margaret Crawford and Richard Toop; (thesis topic: Evolution of extended techniques in the flute music of Brian Ferneyhough); and Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) from the University of British Columbia in 2012, where his thesis topic was Of Instrumental Value: Composer-performer collaboration in the creation of avant-garde flute music, and notably includes the first overview of the performance career of Severino Gazzelloni written in English language, as well as an in-depth interview with renowned Canadian flutist Robert Aitken and writings about McGregor's collaborations with three contemporary Canadian composers.

[1][2] In 2001, Jordan Nobles and Mark Takeshi McGregor co-founded of Vancouver's Redshift Music Society,[3][4] an organization founded in 2001 which commissions and premieres new works by Canadian and international composers.

McGregor was co-artistic director along with Nobles from 2005 to 2012[2] and helped launch the Redshift Records label, which released its first CD in 2007.

[8][9] Mark Takeshi McGregor has premiered flute concertos by Gordon Fitzell, Anna Höstman, James Beckwith Maxwell, and Piotr Grella-Mozejko, and has commissioned and premiered dozens solo and chamber music by dozens of contemporary Canadian and international composers, including Pedro Alvarez, Dániel Péter Biró, Philip Brownlee, Jennifer Butler, Dorothy Chang, André Cormier, Michael Finnissy, Graham Flett, Patrick Giguère, Etsuko Hori, Kaiyi Kao, Yota Kobayashi, Chris Kovarik, Emilie LeBel, Hope Lee, Ellen Lindquist, Nicole Lizée, Simon Martin, Cassandra Miller, Jocelyn Morlock, Gregory Lee Newsome, Jordan Nobles, Anders Nordentoft, James O’Callaghan, Michael Oesterle, Nova Pon, Marci Rabe, Benton Roark, Jeffrey Ryan, Farshid Samandari, Alfredo Santa Ana, Rodney Sharman, Paul Steenhuisen, Edward Top, Hiroki Tsurumoto, and Owen Underhill.

[2][10] He is most frequently heard in concert as soloist, with Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa as the Tiresias Duo,[11] and as flutist for the Victoria-based new music ensemble, Aventa.