Wayne Marshall was born in the UK and, after musical studies there and in Vienna, swiftly established an international reputation as organist and pianist. He is now also in great demand as conductor and duo recitalist. Other musical activities include improvisation, jazz, composition and radio and television presentation. Last year, Faber Music published his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for their 'Faber New Choral Works' series.
As organ recitalist he draws on an exceptionally large and varied repertoire, particularly favouring the French Romantics, and has appeared widely throughout the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East in many prestigious series and festivals such as Dresden, Leipzig, Vienna, Paris, London, Tokyo, Calgary and Dallas. Future recitals include the Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna, Paris (Notre Dame), St Gallen, Birmingham and London.
As solo pianist, his repertoire ranges from the complete works of Gershwin for piano and orchestra to works by, among others, Ravel, Bernstein, Stravinsky and Franck. In June he will give the opening recital of the 2002 Ruhr Piano Festival.
A regular visitor to the BBC Proms, he featured in the 1997 Last Night of the Proms as both organ and piano soloist and the following year made his Proms conducting debut with Porgy and Bess (their Gershwin centenary tribute) and also took part in the 'Prom in the Park'. In 1999 he appeared with the BBC Big Band in their Ellington celebration and in 2001 returned as solo organist.
With Kim Criswell, the eminent singing actress, recent seasons have included orchestral projects in Berlin, Hong Kong, Italy and London and many recitals in the UK and Italy, including Florence, La Scala Milan, Rome and Genova. His trumpet/organ and trumpet/piano duo recitals with Ole Edvard Antonsen have included many cities and countries, such as Munich, Barcelona, London (Royal Festival Hall), Tokyo (Suntory Hall), Hong Kong and Korea. He also has a very successful violin/piano duo with Tasmin Little. The 2002 Braunschweig Festival presents 'Wayne Marshall and Friends', in which all of these duos will appear. He gives recitals with Willard White at the Barbican (London) and Bridgewater Hall (Manchester) in April and May 2002.
As soloist, he has appeared with many North American and European orchestras such as Dallas, Toronto, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Trondheim, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Strasbourg, Rotterdam, Stuttgart Philharmonic, NDR Hannover, Munich Radio Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado. He made his first Australian tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. UK orchestras have included the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony and BBC Philharmonic, Halle, London Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony. In addition he has recorded and performed with the BBC Big Band in the UK. He has worked with many of these orchestras as conductor/soloist.
In recent seasons, guest conducting has included London Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony. He made his Vienna conducting debut in 2000 with Wonderful Town (Austrian Radio Symphony) at the Konzerthaus, and next month he returns for Guys & Dolls with the same orchestra. His Rotterdam Philharmonic conducting debut (Wonderful Town) was earlier this month and he will return for a concert version of Porgy and Bess this September. Future engagements include concerts with Orchestre National de Belgique, Teatro Sao Carlos (Lisbon), Vienna Symphony, Berliner Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Bamberg Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, and BBC Philharmonic.
Wayne Marshall is Organist-in Residence of Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, one of the finest halls in the UK, which opened in September 1996. He gave the inaugural solo recital on its splendid Marcussen organ and also played the Jongen Sinfonie Concertante (Hallé Orchestra/Daniel Harding) to a capacity audience of 2,400. He has since given many further successful organ recitals there. In addition to consultation over programming, his duties at the Bridgewater Hall include appearances with orchestra as organist, pianist and symphonic conductor, and duo recitals with his regular partners. He is closely involved with the Hall's audience development, education and outreach programmes.
Outside Manchester, work with young musicians has included a number of youth orchestras and conservatoire orchestras, such as the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, students of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the conservatoires of Dresden and Winterthur.
He has recorded for many labels, among them EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, Philips Classics and Delos. Releases as conductor/soloist include two highly-praised Gershwin discs with Aalborg Symphony. His many recordings as piano with orchestra include Rhapsody in Blue, the original film soundtrack version of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody with Hollywood Bowl Orchestra/Mauceri; Grainger with City of Birmingham Symphony/Rattle; Saint-Saëns Third (Organ) Symphony with Oslo Philharmonic/Jansons and Bernstein with CBSO/Paavo Järvi. Solo releases include I Got Rhythm and Gershwin Song Book (both piano) and a series of solo organ CDs, including virtuoso repertoire and orchestral transcriptions. EMI also released a trumpet/organ duo recording with Ole Edvard Antonsen;. Most recent releases are his organ transcriptions CD, 'Get Organised' and his Berlin Philharmonic/Abbado Hindemith Kammermusik No.7, which received excellent reviews.
He appeared as pianist and conductor in the 1998 Victoires de la Musique awards with the Orchestre de Paris and in May 1998 received the BBC Music Magazine's 'Artist of the Year' award. In October 1998, he also received an ECHO (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis 1998) award for his 'Gershwin Songbook' CD