Mark Knoop

Mark Knoop is a pianist and conductor living in London, UK. He studied piano with Stephen McIntyre at the Victorian College of the Arts (external link) and in Europe with mentors including Herbert Henck, James Avery and Peter Feuchtwanger. He studied conducting in Melbourne with Robert Rosen and is co-artistic director of the Libra Ensemble (external link).

Mark has appeared throughout Europe, the United Kingdom and Australia and in New Zealand, South Korea, Mongolia, United States of America, Canada and at festivals including the Transit, Ultima (external link), Huddersfield (external link), Spitalfields (external link), Borealis (external link), Lucerne (external link), Spor, Melbourne (external link), and Adelaide (external link) Festivals, and the ISCM World Music Days (external link).

Mark Knoop
photo: Yatzek

He performs with such groups as Plus-Minus (external link) (London/Brussels), Ensemble Exposé (external link) (London), Letter Piece Company (external link) (London/Brussels), ELISION Ensemble (external link) (Brisbane), 175 East (external link) (Auckland), musikFabrik (external link) (Köln) and Apartment House (external link) (London).

Mark has conducted numerous premières including Jason Eckardt (external link)’s Tongues, Bryn Harrison (external link)’s Rise and Repetitions in Extended Time, Erik Ulman (external link)’s Thoughts on the Esterhazy Court Uniform; and the Australian premieres of Elliott Carter (external link)’s Clarinet Concerto, Hans Werner Henze (external link)’s Kammermusik 1958, John Cage (external link)’s Sixteen Dances, and Michael Finnissy (external link)’s Various Nations. He also performed the Australian premieres of Finnissy (external link)’s mammoth piano cycle The History of Photography in Sound and Richard Barrett (external link)’s Tract.

Mark has worked with many respected composers including Peter Ablinger (external link), Richard Barrett (external link), Chris Dench (external link), James Dillon (external link), Michael Finnissy (external link), Helmut Lachenmann, Liza Lim (external link), Thomas Meadowcroft (external link), Matthew Shlomowitz (external link), Erik Ulman (external link), David Young (external link), and many others. Solo works composed for him include Chris Dench (external link)’s into the wormworks and the heart’s algorithms (both members of the Phase Portraits cycle), Benjamin Marks (external link)’ La Chute, Chris Newman’s Air Fool Agony Face, and Dominik Karski (external link)’s Streams Within for piano and ensemble. His recordings of music by John Cage (external link) and David Lumsdaine (external link) have been critically acclaimed.

Current commissions include new solo works by Finnissy (external link), Trond Reinholdtsen (external link), Stefan Prins (external link), Newton Armstrong (external link), Joanna Bailie (external link) and Adam de la Cour (external link).