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MARK ISAACS: SOLO PIANO “NEW STANDARDS” – Brisbane Thursday October 12, 2023

October 12 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
JMI Live, 10 Exhibition St, Bowen Hills, Brisbane
$20

More information & bookings here.

Mark Isaacs’ solo piano program is a reimagining of much-loved classic melodies. All are new-to-jazz choices from the 1960s & 70s including by songwriters such as Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell and the late Burt Bacharach.

“Isaacs, with every release, has refined his systematic approach to post-modernity jazz to the point that his sound defines what jazz should sound like at the advent of the 21st Century” – ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA)

“Here were dialogues to restore the faith. As the world crumbles into vulgarity, vitriol and worse, one felt blessed – privileged, even – to hear solo performances by pianists of the calibre of Mark Isaacs” – SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

“He wrestled melody and song out of silence” – AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

“The audience was silent and motionless, spellbound – somewhere between awe and anticipation” – CLASSIC MELBOURNE

Mark Isaacs writes symphonies, concertos, records and performs as a classical pianist and conducts orchestras. He’s composed and conducted film & TV music and even writes songs (including the lyrics).

Classical music luminary Vladimir Ashkenazy described Mark’s classical work as “masterful” and “highly inventive and inspiring”.

Alongside all this, his brilliant jazz output, over more than four decades now, has seen him collaborating with some of the most legendary international jazz stars, including Roy Haynes, Dave Holland and Kenny Wheeler, recording numerous lauded jazz albums (with two ARIA Award nominations for his previous Australian ‘Resurgence’ band), and touring the world including playing major festivals such as Tokyo Jazz Festival and Finland’s Pori Jazz.

Jazz master Pat Metheny described Mark as “A serious musician looking to solve deep questions” and the Los Angeles Times spoke of his “splendid musical mind”.

Mark Isaacs’ solo shows in Sydney and Melbourne major performance venues like Melbourne Recital Centre and City Recital Hall, Sydney, have received glowing reviews.

Now he presents a unique program of his own individual solo piano takes on “standards”, or “heritage” melodies from the worlds of jazz, film, Broadway, pop and occasionally ‘folkloric’ songs.

‘Waves’ Cartoon

Many years ago I created this cartoon in my mind to illustrate a profound idea which resonates with me. And now some generous and talented people have helped me bring it to life, and so I’d love to share it with you. – Mark Isaacs

SONATA release on ABC Classic June 30, 2023

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SONATA: Solo Piano Works Composed & Performed by Mark Isaacs

Recorded for the ABC Classic label, this album is an intimately authentic selection of recent solo piano classical compositions by Mark Isaacs, performed by the composer. It features a suite of six Songs Without Words, a set of variations on the English folksong The Snow It Melts the Soonest, and his Sonata.

“Both in life and in his music, pianist and composer Mark Isaacs is searching in the darkness for truth; a profound intelligence guides him but never stands in the way of his heart. These probing, introspective solo works are deeply moving, gracefully played, and filled with humanity.”
—JAMES GAVIN biographer and journalist

“Music, at its absolute best, touches the realm of infinity. This is the feeling I have always had with Mark Isaacs’ music, delirious with the beauty and depth of his masterful storytelling, sensitive technique and razor-sharp intelligence.”—SIMON TEDESCHI concert pianist and author

“In the 19th century it was normal that composers would play their own piano music—one thinks of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt…(a line of which perhaps the last was Rachmaninov). It is a mark of the originality of Isaacs’ project that he can surmount the considerable technical demands of his own piano music and present these works in performances so carefully sculpted that their changing moods strike us with an intimate authenticity. A performer’s job is to make any music he performs his own—well, here the music, being Isaacs’ own, leaps off the page under his fingers.”
—NICHOLAS ROUTLEY composer, pianist, conductor, musicologist

CD AUD$24.95

Shipping to Australia only: International customers please order here (prices are in Australian dollars)
Available on major digital music platforms.

Ravel: Ondine – Music video and audio release by Mark Isaacs

New solo piano classical repertoire single & YouTube music video
from Mark Isaacs
 
Ravel: Ondine
 
Available on all major digital music platforms
plus YouTube music video of the recorded performance. 
 
Mark Isaacs’ 2020 classical repertoire album Intimacies (Gracemusic/MGM) received lavish accolades:
 
"Few would dare reinvent such icons of the Western canon. But for Mark Isaacs, to perform is to reinvent…he not only remakes the wheel, but sends it spinning merrily down the road less travelled…even the most familiar of phrases seem to be at Isaacs’ beck and call, their cautious new identities almost convincing us that Isaacs is the composer, making it up as he goes along….just tender admiration and a striking vision" SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (4½ stars)
 
“Exquisitely judged by Isaacs….transfigured beauty….a melody which, in Isaacs’ hands soars" LIMELIGHT Magazine
 
“His debut solo classical release comes with all the warmth that one would expect of his jazz performances”
ABC CLASSIC “Feature of the Week”
 
Now, recorded in Adelaide’s superb Elder Hall, with concurrent multicam video shoot, comes his brand new interpretation of Ravel’s Ondine, a masterwork of French Impressionism which sumptuously evokes the manifold levels of emotion brought forth by the mysterious and sensual spirit of the water
 

New solo piano classical repertoire album from Mark Isaacs “INTIMACIES”

Music by Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Debussy, Satie & Poulenc

Release date Sept 11, 2020, by Gracemusic/MGM on CD & major digital music platforms


Order Intimacies CD (with 16-page booklet): AUD$24.95
Australia only at "Buy Now" button. International customers please order here (prices are in Australian dollars)

“Why should we listen to Mark Isaacs playing this wonderful treasure-chest of well-known, gorgeous pieces, rather than, say, Martha Argerich, or Lang Lang? My answer is this: Every performance by a complete musician is different, and gives an insight into the music not found elsewhere. Isaacs is a complete musician.He is not about nimbleness of fingers, though he has this. Beethoven once accused contemporary pianists of losing all feeling in the nimbleness of fingers. Isaacs believes rather, with Beethoven, and indeed Argerich, that music which is played from the heart will go to the heart: Von Herzen – Möge es wieder – Zu Herzen gehen! (Beethoven’s epigraph to the score of the Missa Solemnis).”
Dr NICHOLAS ROUTLEY – Associate Professor of Music, University of Sydney

“Here is an album of sparklingly fresh, warmly intimate and deeply personal takes on some of the most lyrical and beloved solo piano works in the entire classical repertoire. These precious gems of unrestrained lyricism are given singularly personal and engaging treatments by one of Australia’s most accomplished musicians, internationally-renowned pianist and composer Mark Isaacs. Following two ARIA-nominated albums in jazz, this is his keenly-anticipated debut release of solo classical repertoire.

“The world would have more musical polymaths like Leonard Bernstein, André Previn, and indeed, Mark Isaacs, if more of we classical musicians were able to compose, improvise and play jazz.” 
LACHLAN BRAMBLE– Intimacies Recording Producer; Associate Principal 2nd Violin, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Benaud Trio

 


Queensland Tour

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MEDIA RELEASE

August 2015

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

Gracemusic presents

MARK ISAACS TRIO WITH BRIANA COWLISHAW
SYDNEY & QUEENSLAND TOUR – SEPTEMBER 2015

Experience the scintillating vocals and mesmerising rhythm of the Mark Isaacs Trio with Briana Cowlishaw in their Sydney and Queensland regional tour through SYDNEY, CHARLEVILLE, TAMBO, CLONCURRY, TOWNSVILLE AND CAIRNS in September 2015.  Tickets are on sale now.

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a splendid musical mind” jazz and classical composer/pianist Mark Isaacs performs with long-term collaborators and tight rhythm section, Brett Hirst, bass and Tim Firth, drums.

The trio will also be joined by the scintillating vocals of Briana Cowlishaw in this intimate live show.

An extraordinarily versatile musician, Mark Isaacs has recorded and performed with some of the biggest names in international jazz, he writes symphonies and concertos, works as a classical pianist and his critically acclaimed albums have been nominated for two ARIA Awards.

Briana Cowlishaw is inspired by the sounds of Joni Mitchell, Vince Jones, Diana Reeve, Esperanza Spalding and Elis Regina and weaves through the styles of jazz, latin and pop to create a performance of sublime perfection.  Now London based, Briana has just returned from the Edinburgh Jazz Festival especially for this tour.

Performing a mixture of original songs as well as the band’s own interpretations of standards and covers, this mesmerising contemporary jazz fusion will be bursting with colour and melody.  The set list interpreted in Isaacs’ inimitable style features beautiful jazz and pop standards including Fire and Rain, What a Wonderful World, Fool on the Hill and It’s Too Late and includes Isaacs’ original work, Duende and You Never Forget Love.

As a jazz pianist, Mark Isaacs has toured extensively in Europe, Russia, Asia, the USA, Australasia and the Pacific performin at major festivals including the Tokyo Jazz Festival and Pori Jazz, Finland. He has collaborated with some of the most distinguished figures in international jazz including Dave Holland, Roy Haynes, Kenny Wheeler, Adam Nussbaum, Vinnie Colaiuta and Bob Sheppard and has released many internationally-acclaimed CD’s.

Critics around the world have been effusive in their praise of Mark Isaacs and Briana Cowlishaw

“This is music composed and performed for the listener, not at them. Wonderfully integrated, thoughtful and intelligent…providing some of the best on the cutting edge of accessible jazz” ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA)

“Close your eyes and Bri Cowlishaw will take you places familiar, new, nostalgic, painful, peaceful, visceral, and elsewhere” THE AUSTRALIAN STAGE

“The word of an artist capable of matching the rich elements of classical composition with the flowing rhythms of jazz, the product of a splendid musical mind” LOS ANGELES TIMES

DATE VENUE TICKETS
Wed 16th Sept @ 8.30pm Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre,
Cnr City Rd & Cleveland St, Chippendale, Sydney		 Tickets $25/$20/$15 book online at www.sima.org.au
or call 02 9351 7940
Sat 19th Sept @ 8pm Charleville Town Hall Purchase at event
Sun 20th Sept @ 3pm Tambo Shire Hall Lawn Purchase at event
Thur 24th Sept @ 7:30pm Cloncurry – JOHN FLYNN PLACE $30 on sale now at Cloncurry Shire Council
or on the night
Sat 26th Sept @ 8pm Townsville Riverway Arts Centre On sale now on 07 4727 9797 or at www.ticketshop.com.au
Sun 27th Sept @ 2pm Cairns – Bernie’s Jazz & Piano Café On sale now at Bernie’s Jazz & Piano Café on 07 4041 4603

 

Tour produced by Gracemusic and supported by The Playing Queensland Fund and arTour, initiatives of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

www.markisaacs.com

FOR MEDIA INFORMATION: Tracey Whealey, The Shock Factor
M: 0417 146 552   |   E: tracey@theshockfactor.com.au

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