Jazz pianist Martin Gasselsberger becomes a professor in Vienna

The best in the industry applied for the “Senior Artist Keyboard Instruments Popular Music” professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (mdw) – and Martin Gasselsberger won the hearing. He will take up the professorship in March. “I never expected that, that’s the position I definitely strive for in my musical field,” says the jazz pianist and amazingly limitless musician from Gaspoltshofen in the Hausruckviertel. Overall, things are going brilliantly for Gasselsberger: On March 24th, his new choral work “Stabat Mater” will be premiered together with the Kantorei Mondsee under the direction of Gottfried Holzer-Graf in the Mondsee Basilica. Gasselsberger’s long-time companion Tim Collins plays marimba and vibraphone, the text comes from Viennese author Martin Mucha.

Gasselsberger may have been eight years old when he made a bet with his father. “You play notes on the piano in my room, and I’ll tell you what notes they are in the kitchen,” said the little boy. In return, the father, who conducted the Gaspoltshofen Liedertafel as choir director, promised a savings account with 1,000 schillings (around 70 euros) for the boy. Back then, Gasselsberger demonstrated his perfect pitch, “but that doesn’t make you a musical superpike,” he says.

Back then, he was looking for suitable sounds and improvisations for music cassettes by Herbert Grönemeyer and Elton John. “But when we stand around the Christmas tree as a family at Christmas and sing, it still sounds full of voices,” says Gasselsberger and smiles – “as if the Austrian national football team were singing the national anthem.” Sports metaphors are not uncommon for Gasselsberger. When he was a boy he was one of the best young tennis players in Upper Austria. Nothing came of my sports career “because music was my passion.” And further: “Even as a boy, I simulated playing three chords in front of 50,000 people – only as a jazz musician do you play 50,000 chords in front of three people,” says Gasselsberger.

This man cultivates a likeable modesty, which, among other things, ensured his years of stage work with actor Frank Hoffmann until his death in 2022. Now he is the musical accompanist of the writer Michael Köhlmeier. He also curates the ProMusic concerts at Prodiagonal Lambach, which starts on March 20th with harpsichord master Peter Waldner (“Bruckner meets Bach”). Pianist Martin Listabarth (“Dedicated”) can be seen on April 18th. Already this Saturday (February 24th) Gasselsberger is playing with Tim Collins in Bayerisch Gmain.

Information and dates:
www.gasselsberger.com

Martin Gasselsberger

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Author

Peter Grubmüller

Head of Culture Department

Peter Grubmüller

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