Professor Mark Racz
Vice PrincipalPiano Tutor
MFA (Manhattan School of Music)
BA
email Mark Racz c/o Judy Francis
Tel: c/o 0121 331 6905
Mark Racz was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA in 1955. He received his BA in music from Rutgers University in 1976 and a Master’s degree in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music in 1980. In 1976 he attended the Fontainebleau School of Music, studying harmony and analysis with Nadia Boulanger.
Mark has lived in Birmingham (UK) since 1980, and has performed widely as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. Although he has a broad repertoire, he has always had a particular affinity for twentieth-century music, and has programmed works by Bartók, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Ives, Cage, Boulez, Crumb and many others. In 1993 he participated in a performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s three-hour epic Sternklang, performed under the direction of the composer.
Mark has worked full-time at Birmingham Conservatoire since 1989 and he has been Vice Principal of the Conservatoire since 1999. He was awarded a Professorship by Birmingham City University (then University of Central England) in 2000. He continues to teach piano at the Conservatoire and is active giving masterclasses including recent ones at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, the University of Music in Bucharest, the Krakow Academy of Music, and at many universities and conservatoires in Taiwan and China, including Central Conservatory in Beijing, Shanghai Conservatory and the Xinghai Conservatory in Guangzhou.
Research & Teaching Specialisms
- Piano performance
Recent Masterclasses & Workshops
- Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik, Weimar
- University of Music, Bucharest
- Krakow Academy of Music
- Central Conservatory, Beijing
- Shanghai Conservatory
- Xinghai Conservatory, Guangzhou