Mark Gasser

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Concert Pianist (b1972)

Mark Gasser is an Internationally acclaimed British concert pianist born in Sheffield (South Yorkshire) in 1972. he studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal Academy of Music and is amongst the most respected alumni of both institutions and is a Fellow of both. He is listed, along with Robin Hood, as one of the 100 most famous people of all time to ever have come from South Yorkshire.

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Gasser is renowned for playing both large scale standard piano literature as well as broadcasting and recording on five continents. He is recognized as having a dramatic affinity for the Viennese Classics (Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in particular) as well as Rachmaninoff and, perhaps, most notably, the French Impressionists Debussy and Ravel. His repertoire is vast and staggeringly wide ranging from the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach to the (complete) Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus of Olivier Messiaen. As a chamber musician he has performed in all the major Chamber Music Festivals and has toured with his friend the virtuoso cellist Mats Lidström. He has also, surprisingly, worked with many contemporary popular artists such as P!nk, Jarvis Cocker and Björk. His concerto repertoire alone is reputed to include over 70 different works from Bach to the present day.

Gasser is also closely associated with many contemporary composers, and has premiered or recorded many compositions by living and 20th century composers, including: - Alfred Schnittke, Constant Lambert, Henry Cowell, Michael Finnissy, Toru Takemitsu, George Crumb, James McMillan, Alistair Zaldua, Michael Tippet, John Webb, James Dillon, Phillip Whilby, Richard Barrett, Aldo Clementi, Mike Vaughan, John Cage, Luigi Dallapiccola,John Adams, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Olivier Messiaen, Luigi Nono, Edgard Varèse, Judith Bingham, Pierre Boulez, Frank Zappa, György Ligeti and Ronald Stevenson. Of the latter he performed Stevenson's monumental Passacaglia on DSCH at Carnegie Hall as a charity concert shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center to raise money for the rescue workers families lost in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Gasser was a founder member of the Thallein Ensemble and is reputed to have one the widest range of dynamics of any living pianist. He has performed in many of the world's leading concert halls, music festivals and has been a soloist with the leading Symphony Orchestras worldwide. He is currently Head of Keyboard Studies at the Central Queensland University in Australia and divides his time between teaching and touring.

Pedagogy

As a pedagogue, Gasser has taught and given masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Christ's Hospital UK, Newcastle University NSW, Birmingham Conservatoire UK, Julliard School USA, University of Oxford UK, Australian National Academy of Music, The Purcell School UK, Royal Holloway University UK, The King's School, Canterbury UK, Trinity College of Music UK, Moscow Conservatoire, University of Cambridge UK, Central Queensland University, City University of New York and the Conservatoire de Paris.

Teachers

He has studied with John Humphreys, Frank Wibaut, Alfred Brendel and Peter Donohoe.

External links

• Mark Gasser CQU Website
• List of Most Famous people in Sheffield's History

Related Concert Reviews

• Large scale concert recording reviews of Gasser's performances of the Passacaglia on DSCH
• Melbourne AGE Review Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus

THE INDEPENDENT "The meaning of Life in 80 Minutes" Gasser's performance of Passacaglia on DSCH at the Wigmore Hall Bangalow festival Finnissy Midsummer Morn'

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