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Mark Gasser

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Mark Gasser
Mark Gasser at a recording session in Newcastle, NSW, in March 2007
Mark Gasser at a recording session in Newcastle, NSW, in March 2007
Background information
Born (1972-07-06) 6 July 1972 (age 52)
Sheffield, England
GenresBaroque, Classical, Romantic 20th century
Occupation(s)Pianist, classical musician, academic
InstrumentPiano

Mark Gasser[1] (born 6 July 1972)[2] is a British concert pianist.

Career

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Gasser was born in Sheffield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1972 to Austrian and Scottish parents. He studied with John Humphreys at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and with Frank Wibaut at the Royal Academy of Music, and is a fellow of both institutions. Later he also studied with Alfred Brendel and Peter Donohoe.[3]

Gasser plays large-scale standard repertoire piano works, in particular the Viennese Classics (Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert) and Grieg, Mendelssohn, Busoni, and Rachmaninoff, and the French Impressionists Debussy and Ravel. His repertoire ranges from Bach's Goldberg Variations to Messiaen's Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus,[4] as well as collaborations with living composers.

As a chamber musician he has performed in all the major chamber music festivals in the United States, Europe and Australia[5][6] and has toured with the virtuoso cellist Mats Lidström.

His concerto repertoire includes more than 70 works ranging from Bach to music from the present day. Gasser collaborates with contemporary composers and has premiered and recorded compositions by 20th-century composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Ross Edwards,[7] Constant Lambert, Benjamin Britten, Henri Pousseur, Henry Cowell, Toru Takemitsu, George Crumb,[8] James MacMillan, Alistair Zaldua, Michael Tippett, John Webb, James Dillon, Phillip Whilby, Richard Barrett, Cat Hope, Aldo Clementi, Mike Vaughan, John Cage, Luigi Dallapiccola, John Adams, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Olivier Messiaen,[9] Luigi Nono, Edgard Varèse, Judith Bingham, Pierre Boulez, Joël-François Durand, Frank Zappa, György Ligeti and Ronald Stevenson. Gasser has also worked with contemporary artists such as Pink, Jarvis Cocker and Björk.

Gasser performed Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH[10][11] at Carnegie Hall[12][13] as a charity concert shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, to raise money for the families of rescue workers who died in the September 11 attacks, and most recently at the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House (2012) to launch Yamaha's CFX Concert Grand Piano in Australia.[14][15]

Gasser was a founding member of the Thallein Ensemble and has performed in some of the world's major concert halls and music festivals and has been a soloist with a number of symphony orchestras. He was named "Bösendorfer Artist of the Year" In 2002.[16] Since 21 October 2009 Gasser has been an exclusive Yamaha Artist.[15][17]

From 2011 – 2013 Gasser was a staff member of the Keyboard Faculty of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, Western Australia[18] where he also achieved the award of PhD.[3] From 2013–2015 Gasser was CEO and Artistic Director of the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts in Brisbane, Queensland. He currently lives in Melbourne.

Masterclasses

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Gasser has taught masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Christ's Hospital UK, Newcastle University, Australia, Hale School AU, Birmingham Conservatoire UK, Juilliard School, New York, University of Oxford UK, Australian National Academy of Music, Purcell School UK, Royal Holloway University UK, The King's School, Canterbury UK, Trinity College of Music UK, University of Cambridge, UK, Darmstadt, Germany, Central Queensland University, AU Newcastle Grammar School, Australia, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, City University of New York and the Conservatoire de Paris.

'Variations Serieuses' Op 54
Felix Mendelssohn
Performed live by Mark Gasser
'Impromptu in Gb Major' Op 90 No 3.
Franz Schubert
Performed live by Mark Gasser
'Notturno' Op 54 No 4 by
Edvard Grieg
Performed live by Mark Gasser
'The Queen's Dolour (A Farewell) by Henry Purcell / Realized by Ronald Stevenson (1958)
Performed live by Mark Gasser
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References

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  1. ^ /ˈɡæsər/
  2. ^ ""Over 200 Famous or Infamous People and Characters with Local Connections who have Contributed to Sheffield's fame and fortune" .pdf". www.sheffield.gov.uk. www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries. Archived from the original on 20 February 2008. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  3. ^ a b Gasser, M., "Ronald Stevenson, Composer-Pianist : An Exegetical Critique from a Pianistic Perspective" (Edith Cowan University Press, Western Australia, 2013)
  4. ^ "Howard Mellifluous; Gasser Expert Pianist (Clive O'Connell 12 August 2003". Melbourne AGE. Fairfax Media. 12 August 2003. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  5. ^ "One of Gasser's Many Broadcasts from the AFCM on the ABC – Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op 60 – Mark Gasser, p; Caroline Henbest, va; Peter Rejto, vc; Ian Swensen". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  6. ^ "Australian Festival of Chamber Music" (PDF). AFCM official website. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  7. ^ "Ross Edwards "The Water Circle" World Premier – Peter Garrett, n; Alexandre Oguey, ca; Riley Lee, shakuhachi; Mark Gasser, p; Catherine Hewgill, vc; Marshall McGuire, h; Ian Brunskill, Claire Edwardes, per 19'36". ABC Classic FM. ABC Classic FM. Archived from the original on 26 January 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  8. ^ "SUNSHINE AND STARS". Music and Vision. Music and Vision (8 July 2006, Malcolm Tattersall, Townsville, Australia). Retrieved 3 March 2008.
  9. ^ "Bravo Series Reviewer Clive O'Connell 1 March 2004". Melbourne AGE. Fairfax Media. 1 March 2004. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  10. ^ ""The Meaning of Life in 80 Minutes" Interview about Gasser's performance of Passacaglia on DSCH at the Wigmore Hall, London". The INDEPENDENT. The Independent & The Independent on Sunday. 16 February 2001. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  11. ^ "Concert / Recording Review Gasser Passacaglia on DSCH Simon Jenner". Classical Music on the Web. MusicWeb-International. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  12. ^ "Gasser at Carnegie Hall". The sister City program of the City of New York, INC Official Website. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  13. ^ Gasser Hits High Note at Carnegie Hall, article / Interview Telegraph Newspaper ARTS News) 26 October 2001.
  14. ^ "Quiet night makes way for an epic climb". Sydney Morning Herald. 22 June 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  15. ^ a b "Yamaha Welcomes New Artist". YAMAHA. Yamaha Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2009.[permanent dead link‍]
  16. ^ "Performers Comments / interviews on using the Stuart & Sons piano". Piano Australia PTY. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  17. ^ ""CSYO OFFICIAL SITE " Bosendorfer flew a piano especially for a performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 from Vienna to Sheffield."". CSYO. Archived from the original on 4 April 2005. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
  18. ^ "WAAPA Concert Diary 2011" (PDF). ECU / WAAPA. ECU WAAPA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  • International Piano Quarterly, March 2004. "Mark Gasser" p24-28
  • Ronald Stevenson: The Man and His Music p129, 210. A Symposium edited Colin Scott-Sutherland, Forward Lord Menuhin. – Toccata Press ISBN 0-907689-40-X Tells how Gasser is closely associated with Ronald Stevenson and has performed / premiered many works & is one of only 5 pianists to ever have performed the composer's 80-minute Passacaglia on DSCH.
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