Markus Schirmer is an Austrian pianist.

Biography

Born in Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, Markus Schirmer studied with Rudolf Kehrer

Rudolf Kehrer

Rudolf Kehrer is a much-recorded German classical pianist.Kehrer was born in Tiflis, Georgia to a family of piano-makers who had emigrated from Swabia, Germany....

, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling

Karl-Heinz Kämmerling

Karl-Heinz Kämmerling is a notable German academic teacher of classical pianists, who prepared at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover pianists for a career as performers and academic teachers, particularly in the early training of highly gifted...

, Paul Badura-Skoda

Paul Badura-Skoda

Paul Badura-Skoda is an Austrian pianist.He won first prize in the Austrian Music Competition in 1947. In 1949, he performed with distinguished conductors like Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan...

 and Doris Wolf, among others. He performed on a number of major concert halls and festivals such as Wiener Musikverein & Konzerthaus, Herkulessaal & Philharmonic (Munich), Suntory Hall

Suntory Hall

The Suntory Hall is a concert hall complex consisting of the "Main Hall" and the "Small Hall" located in the Ark Hills complex, near the U.S. Embassy and TV Asahi in the Akasaka district of northern Minato, a ward in Tokyo, Japan...

 (Tokyo), Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...

 (London), Gewandhaus

Gewandhaus

Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...

 (Leipzig), Rudolfinum

Rudolfinum

The Rudolfinum is a music auditorium in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava.-Overview:...

 (Prague), Konzerthaus Berlin, Megaron (Athens), Finlandia Hall

Finlandia Hall

Finlandia Hall is a concert hall with a congress wing in Helsinki, Finland, by Töölönlahti bay. The building was designed by Alvar Aalto. The work began in 1967 and was completed in 1971.-Design and building:...

 (Helsinki), Teatro Teresa Carreño

Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex

The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex , also known as Teresa Carreño Theater , is the most important theatre of Caracas and Venezuela, where performances include symphonic and popular concerts, opera, ballet and plays...

 (Caracas), Victoria Hall (Geneva), Teatro Olimpico

Teatro Olimpico

The Teatro Olimpico is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy: constructed in 1580-1585, it is the oldest surviving enclosed theatre in the world. The theatre was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Renaissance, and was not completed until after his death...

 (Vicenza), Festival international de piano “La roque d´Antheron“, Rheingau Musik Festival

Rheingau Musik Festival

The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...

, Bregenz Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, styriarte, Lucerne Festival, Mondseetage, ISCM-World Music Festival etc.

He has worked with orchestras and conductors such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

The Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra in Austria, regularly considered one of the finest in the world....

, English Chamber Orchestra

English Chamber Orchestra

The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...

, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

The , or TSO, was established in 1946 as the Toho Symphony Orchestra . It assumed its present name in 1951.Based in Kawasaki, the TSO performs in numerous concert halls and serves as the pit ensemble for some productions at New National Theatre, Tokyo, the city's leading opera house...

, Vienna Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra

Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra

The Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra or the Kirov Orchestra is located in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The orchestra was founded in 1783 during the reign of Peter the Great, it was known before the revolution as the Russian Imperial Opera Orchestra...

, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is a Swiss symphony orchestra, based in Geneva at the Victoria Hall...

, Radio-Symphony Orchestras of Vienna, Munich and Leipzig, Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a Finnish orchestra based in Helsinki, and is the chief radio orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company . The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre...

 under Valery Gergiev

Valery Gergiev

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...

, Sir Neville Marriner

Neville Marriner

Sir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...

, Lord Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

, Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste is a Finnish conductor and violinist.Saraste was trained as a violinist. He later studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula, in the same class as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vänskä...

, Michael Gielen

Michael Gielen

-Professional career:Gielen was born in Dresden, Germany, to opera director Josef Gielen. Through his mother, Rose, he is the nephew of Eduard Steuermann and Salka Steuermann Viertel. He began his career as a pianist in Buenos Aires, where he studied with Erwin Leuchter and gave an early...

, Philippe Entremont

Philippe Entremont

Philippe Entremont is a French pianist and conductor. He has made many recordings during his career, notably one in 1961 of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic....

, Sir Charles Mackerras

Charles Mackerras

Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...

, Pinchas Steinberg

Pinchas Steinberg

Pinchas Steinberg is an Israeli conductor.He was a violin student in the USA and a composition student in Berlin. His conducting debut was in 1974 with the RIAS Symphony Orchestra, Berlin. He was a regular guest conductor with the Vienna State Opera from 1986-1993...

, John Axelrod, Fabio Luisi

Fabio Luisi

Fabio Luisi is an Italian conductor. On September 6, 2011, he was named Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera....

, Roy Goodman

Roy Goodman

Roy Goodman is a conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music...

 oder Philippe Jordan

Philippe Jordan

Philippe Jordan is a Swiss conductor, and the son of conductor Armin Jordan. He began to study piano at age 6. At age 8, he joined the Zürich Sängerknaben. His violin studies began at age 11....

.

He adores Schubert above all but is also enthusiastic about more obscure works such as Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

's ironic piano concerto, the transcendental oeuvres of Szymanowski

Karol Szymanowski

Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...

 or Apostel

Hans Erich Apostel

Hans Erich Apostel was a German-born Austrian composer of classical music....

's „Kubiniana“. Chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 plays a very important role in his work and so he has performed with Julian Rachlin

Julian Rachlin

Julian Rachlin is a Lithuanian-born violinist and violist.-Background and early life:Born in Vilnius, he emigrated in 1978 with his musician parents to Austria. In 1983, he entered the Konservatorium Wien and studied violin in the Soviet tradition with Boris Kuschnir, while also receiving private...

, Renaud Capuçon, Clemens Hagen, Christian Altenburger, Danjulo Ishizaka, Patrick Demenga, the Artis Quartet, the Auryn Quartet, the Chilingirian quartet, the Gaede Trio and many others.

Through the years Markus Schirmer has written many songs, e.g. for Sandra Pires (a Portuguese-Australian singer living in Vienna) and many other vocalists.

Furthermore he has worked on a number of artistic projects, for example Scurdia, a crossover

Crossover (music)

Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...

 partnership with the Kurdish lutist Risgar Koshnaw and other exceptional artists from all over the world, which was initialized in 1988.

Schirmer is a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz where he has been teaching concert piano students from Austria, Greece, Finland, Italy and Japan.

Markus Schirmer is often invited to adjudicate in many international piano competitions and to give master classes all over the world. He has become very committed to Live Music Now, a charitable scheme that was founded by Lord Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

 to support gifted musicians.

Schirmer was awarded the “Music Manual Award“ at the international Music Convention EUROMUSIC. In addition he was recently granted the Karl-Böhm-Interpretationspreis, an award for Austrian artists.

Repertoire

• W. A. Mozart: piano concertos: Kv 271 (E-flat major), Kv 365 (E-flat major, for 2 pianos), Kv 414 (A major), Kv 459 (F major), Kv 466 (D minor), Kv 467 (C major), Kv 482 (E-flat major), Kv 488 (A major), Kv 491 (C minor), Kv 503 (C major), Kv 537 (D major), Kv 595 (B-flat major)
• K. Ditters v. Dittersdorf: Piano Concerto in A major
• L. v. Beethoven: All 5 Piano Concertos, Triple Concerto, Choral Fantasie
• F.Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat major, Danse macabre
• F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdi: Piano Concerto No.1 (G minor, op.25), No.2 (D minor, op.40)
• R. Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor
• E. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
• J. Brahms: Piano Concertos: No.1, D minor; No.2, B-flat major
• P. I. Tschaikowski: Piano Concerto No.1, B-flat minor
• S. Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No.2, C minor
• S. Prokofieff: Piano Concerto No.1, D-flat major; Piano Concerto No.3, C major
• M. Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
• G. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
• F.Poulenc: Concerto for 2 Pianos, D minor
• A. Honegger: Concertino
• B. Britten: Piano Concerto
• L. Bernstein: 2nd Symphony for piano and orchestra - "The Age of Anxiety"
• I. Strawinsky: Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
• P. P. Palsson: Capriccio Serioso (1996) for piano and orchestra

Discography

• Pictures & Reflections (Maurice Ravel "Miroirs", Modest Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition") Tacet 2005, T 132
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Early Piano Sonatas, op. 13 "Pathetique"; op. 2,2 and op. 2,3; Tacet 2003, T 128
• W. A. Mozart: The Piano Quartets, Tacet 2002 (CD: Nr. 116, DVD: Nr. D116)
• Franz Schubert: Piano sonatas D625 F minor, D 845 A minor, Lotus Records (LR 9414CD)
• Joseph Haydn: Piano Sonatas Vol. 1, Lotus Records (LR 9517CD) (presently not available)
• Markus Schirmer & Wolfram Berger — Engel im Kopf
• Scurdia – Risgar Koshnaw "My songs from Kurdistan" (presently not available)

Projects

• Engel im Kopf

A cabaret written by Markus Schirmer and Graz-based actor Wolfram Berger. It can be seen as a mix of spoonerisms, pop songs, troubadour songs, folk songs und nursery rhymes.

• Scurdia

Scurdia is an improvisation project, which brings together extraordinary musicians from all over the world on one stage, thus allowing completely new artistic-creative energies to be set free by bridging various cultures. Among them internationally renowned Venezuela-born Arnoldo Moreno, Ismael Barrios (former active percussionist for Opus

Opus (band)

Opus is a pop-rock group from Graz, Austria. Formed in 1973, the group remains active today. The band is especially well known for its 1985 single release, "Live Is Life."-History:...

, EAV

Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung

The EAV is an Austrian band that got together in 1977....

, STS) from Venezuela, the German flutist/saxophonist Reinhard Grube and keyboarder Franz Kreimer (Ausseer Hardbradler)

• The Seven Deadly Sins

In collaboration with the American singer and actress Helen Schneider

Helen Schneider

Helen Schneider is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany.Born the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider , she studied piano before starting to perform as a singer in venues in New England and New York.Between 1978 and 1984, she achieved success as a rock singer in Germany;...

 he presents his own adaptation of Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

’s The Seven Deadly Sins for voice and piano.

External links

• Official website of Markus Schirmer