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Photo: Wolter Peeters

Mark Isaacs (b. 1958) has pursued a fertile career path as a composer/pianist in both classical and jazz/improvisation music, attaining international distinction in both.

Believing in the power of melody, chromatic harmony, lyricism and polyrhythms are at the heart of his craft. He is interested in cross-fertilising the concert hall composing tradition with musical dialects of Western jazz and jazz-related/improvisation based music.

His connection to concert hall composing began at the age of 12 when he began to compose chamber and orchestral works. During his teens he received several awards and scholarships for his compositions and studied with distinguished Australian composer Vincent Plush at the age of 14.

Isaacs completed a Master of Music degree in composition at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in the United States. In 1996 he was awarded a two-year Fellowship by the Australia Council. He was a prize-winner in the first Tokyo International Competition for Chamber Music Composition and, in 2002, received the inaugural Miriam Hyde Composer-Pianist Award. In 2007 he was awarded the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award.

Isaacs's commissioned works have been performed and broadcast both nationally and internationally by various orchestras, ensembles and soloists. He has also composed for film, television and the theatre including a 2001 commission for the Sydney Theatre Company production of Three Days of Rain by acclaimed New York playwright Richard Greenburg. Isaacs has written two books of piano preludes for himself as performer and a major oratorio based on the Joan of Arc story, which he conducted at the Sydney Opera House with over 1,000 performers.

In 1994 Isaacs performed in the premiere of his own piano concerto in St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall with the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra.

His career as jazz pianist and composer has taken him on numerous tours around the world (including six tours of Russia) and he has collaborated with some of the artform's most distinguished performers and played at major international festivals such as the Tokyo Jazz Festival and Finland's Pori Jazz as well as releasing many internationally-acclaimed CDs of jazz and improvised music. He currently performs with his Resurgence Band and has been nominated for two ARIA Awards and three Bell Jazz Awards.

He has also given concerts and made recordings as a classical pianist, including performances as pianist for the cello & piano duo Tapas with former Sydney Symphony principal cellist Trish O'Brien, and been involved in jazz festival curation and music commentating.

Mark Isaacs — current to November 2011