Mark Isaacs

Born on 22 June 1958 in London, England, Isaacs saw his family relocate to Australia in 1963. Harmony and theory came first from his father, a jazz musician, and by age twelve the boy had already completed a woodwind suite. While still at school he attended the Sydney Conservatorium after hours, where the noted Peter Sculthorpe instructed him in piano and theory. By eighteen Isaacs was simultaneously building careers in both classical and jazz fields. His debut jazz album, issued in 1979, consisted entirely of original pieces. Early in the following decade he moved to the United States to perform and pursue further study, ultimately earning a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. The second album, Preludes, was taped back in Australia in 1988.

Once more in America, Isaacs heard the Australian Ensemble present his composition So It Does at Carnegie Hall. That same year in New York he joined veterans Dave Holland and Roy Haynes to record the spontaneous Encounters, a set of jazz originals that marked his major breakthrough and established him as a significant talent. He next assembled a trio featuring Adam Armstrong on bass and Andrew Gander on drums; the group toured Europe and, at its creative and technical height, undertook a 1993 Russian journey that comprised twenty-four concerts across seventeen cities. During the visit Isaacs also appeared as soloist in his own piano concerto with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra. “Playing the same piano that Rachmaninov and Shostakovich played was quite an experience,” he remarked, rounding out the Russian dates with five additional trio performances in Moscow. ABC Music brought out the four-album collection Air, Earth, Fire and Water in 1995; issued together as The Elements, the work presented an introspective Isaacs responding at the keyboard to music’s transcendent and spiritual dimensions. The next year found him arranging for the Australian Art Orchestra, maintaining trio activities, and considering an opera, while the Australia Council for the Arts awarded him a two-year Music Fellowship. In 2003 the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra commissioned him to compose a concerto for trumpeter James Morrison. An estimable jazz pianist and composer, Isaacs embodies a rich and inventive era in Australian improvised music; his uncle was guitarist Ike Isaacs.