Marcus McLaren is a young New Zealand pianist resident in Germany. He has been based in Europe since winning the New Zealand National Concerto Competition in 1991. As concerto soloist he has performed with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Kharkov Philharmonic (Ukraine), the Voronezh Symphony (Russia), the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (USA), the Auckland Philharmonia, the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the Wellington Youth Orchestra and the Dunedin Sinfonia, under such conductors as Edvard Tchivzhel, Vakhtang Jordania and Vladimir Verbitsky.

McLaren has given solo recitals in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark and has been broadcast on Österreichische Rundfunk, Radio Burgenland, Blue Danube Radio, TV-Midt-Vest Denmark and Television Latvia.

An Honours graduate in Piano Performance of Otago University and the Joseph Haydn Konservatorium (Austria), Wellington-born McLaren has studied under Colleen Rae-Gerrard, Terence Dennis, James McChesney and Paul Badura-Skoda. In 1998 he completed a three-year post-graduate course in vocal accompaniment under David Lutz at the Vienna Academy of Music. He was awarded a QEII Arts Council Grant and the Austrian Bösendorfer Piano Scholarship twice, and holds the British diplomas LRSM, LTCL and ARCM in piano and teaching.

In 1996 McLaren participated in the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, where he played for masterclasses given by Christa Ludwig and Marilyn Horne as well as in concert. Among his music partners are vocalists Peter Baillie (Vienna Volksoper), Helen Medlyn, Anna Agathonos (Gelsenkirchen Opera House), Gisela Theisen, Haeyoung Shin and Andrea Kristel, bassoonists Stepan Turnovsky (Vienna Philharmonic) and Satofumi Sugimoto (Ulm Philharmonic), flautist Andreas Blau (Berlin Philharmonic), clarinetists Wilhelm Werkmann and Burkhard Harstorff (Ulm Philharmonic), and trombonist Jörg Stegmaier (Ulm Philharmonic).

McLaren’s experience with historic instruments includes solo performances on Liszt’s Erard piano at the composer’s birthplace, an 1839 Bösendorfer at Palais Auersperg and early fortepianos by Broadwood, Clementi and Walther at the Vienna Hofburg.

McLaren has taught piano and theory for many years. From 2000-2005 he was the Assistant Director, Head Accompanist and Piano Teacher at the Dornstadt School of Music, near Ulm. From 2005 he is the Assistant Director and Piano Teacher at the Langenau Associate School of Music.

He speaks English, German, Italian and French, has both New Zealand and Italian citizenship, and is a member of Mensa in Deutschland e.V.