Marcel Biography 2

For more than two decades Marcel and his wife Elizabeth have performed extensively as a duo piano team (Bergmann Piano Duo) and have since enjoyed a successful career. They received first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Caltanissetta, Italy, were laureates of The 4th Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition and were performing artists in Yehudi Menuhin’s organization Live Music Now. Their recitals and concerts with orchestra have taken them to many parts of the world, including the United States, Italy, Germany, Holland, Greece and Canada, with performances at the celebrated Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Banff Arts Festival, the Royal Bank Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition, the International Two Piano Symposium and Schubertiade, Miami, the Tage für neue Musik, Darmstadt, the Braunschweiger Kammermusik Podium and at the EXPO 2000, Hannover. They have recorded for the CBC, for several stations of the ARD in Germany and for National Public Radio in the USA and have made several CDs, which appear on the Arktos and Naxos labels. The collaboration as a piano duo has inspired numerous compositions and arrangements for 2 pianos and piano duet, many of which can be heard on their various recordings. Marcel’s works are featured on a recent Brilliant Classics release, Minimal Piano Music, X-XX.

In December 2005, Marcel’s Urban Pulse for two pianos was premiered as the commissioned work for The 10th Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (past commissioned composers included Morton Gould, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom and John Corigliano). His music appears on the Canadian National Conservatory’s  series Making Tracks- An Expedition in Canadian Piano Music. He has been commissioned by various organizations including the CBC, the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, the Spiritus Chamber Choir, the Langley Community Music School and the San Francisco International Music Festival.

Furthermore, Marcel has also created several works and arrangements involving two pianos and other instruments, such as Culemborg City Soundscape (together with Jeroen Van Veen). Frequent collaborations with composers, performers and writers in Europe and North America have led to a multitude of chamber music based projects, ranging from duo to sextet. His most recent large scale work, Two Bit Oper-Eh-Shun (an oratorio on homelessness)  was premiered at the 2010 High Performance Rodeo in Calgary and was presented as part of the New York Music Theater Festival in July 2012.

In addition to frequent appearances as a duo pianist and chamber musician, he performed as a core musician of the Calgary based group Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, recipient of both the 2005 and 2006 Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Classical Recording. Marcel is also internationally active as a clinician, juror, and lecturer and has been involved as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach. In 2004/2005, Marcel and his wife were Artistic Directors of The Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition and Foundation in Miami. He has been on faculty at Mount Royal University, the University of Calgary, and served as Artistic Director of the Langley Community Music School. He has been involved in various musical activities at The Banff Centre for the Arts. From 2009-2013 Marcel was Professor of Music at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ont.  and is currently he is Director of Programme Advancement at the Langley Community Music School.

Marcel is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

Marcel Bergmann studierte Musikwissenschaft an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, sowie Klavier and der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover und an der Université de Montréal. Seit über 15 Jahren ist er als Pianist, Komponist, Arrangeur und Lehrer  künstlerisch tätig. Sein weit gespanntes musikalisches Interesse und seine Erfahrungen sowohl in der klassischen als auch der populären Musik schlagen sich in einem stilistisch vielseitigen kompositorischen Schaffen nieder. Neben Musik zu einer Reihe von Dokumentarfilmen (Bayerisches Fernsehen, Arte, 3-SAT) schreibt Marcel Bergmann Musik zu verschiedenen Theater-, Kabarett- und Multimedia-Projekten, wie z.B. Helmut Ruges Revolutionsstück Baden rebelliert (1998 von der Badischen Landesbühne produziert und in 30 badischen Städten aufgeführt) oder Online an der Leine ( EXPO 2000 ).

Seit 1991 arbeitet Marcel Bergmann mit seiner  Frau Elizabeth auch intensiv als Klavierduo zusammen. Nach Preisen bei internationalen Wettbewerben in Caltanissetta/Italien und Miami/USA beginnt eine internationale Konzerttätigkeit und Auftritte bei zahlreichen Festivals.

Das Bergmann-Duo macht Rundfunkaufnahmen für die Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, den Südwestfunk und den Norddeutschen Rundfunk und tritt mit Orchestern im In-und Ausland auf (u.a. SWF Kaiserslautern, Göttinger Symphoniker, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Canticum Novum/Santa Fe).

1997 erscheint ihre erste CD mit Werken des 20.Jahrhunderts für 2 Klaviere. Mehrere CDs für das kanadische Label Arktos , sowie die Einspielung des kompletten Werks für 2 Klaviere von William Bolcom ( Naxos )folgen.

Die langjährigen Erfahrungen als Klavierduo regen den Künstler zu zahlreichen eigenen Kompositionen und Arrangements für 2 Klaviere an, von denen das Duo mehrere im Rahmen ihrer CD- Aufnahmen einspielt.