Steinbach, Mark

Mark Steinbach

Mark Steinbach concertizes and teaches frequently throughout the United States and Europe. He is a passionate advocate of both new and historic music. His recordings have been featured on American Public Media’s Pipedreams and the International Online Organ Festival. Mr. Steinbach is University Organist, Curator of Instruments, and Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Music at Brown University, where he performs on the historic Hutchings-Votey pipe organ (1903) and teaches organ, music theory, and seminars on topics such as Olivier Messiaen.

Steinbach’s critically acclaimed album Glass-Bach Dresden, (Orange Mountain Music, 2021) was recorded on the 1755 Silbermann organ in the Dresden Cathedral.

“The playing, registration, phrasing, timing, rhythm, and of course accuracy is a 10 out of 10.” (The American Organist)

“Composers separated by centuries unite to mesmerizing effect…gorgeously recorded.” (BBC Music Magazine)

Regarding Steinbach’s album Organ Works of Anton Heiller (Loft):

“Steinbach plays it with exuberant panache. He navigates these tonal riches with unfailing skill.” (The Tracker)

His album Resonance and Resilience: Dresden (Raven Records) also recorded on the 1755 Gottfried Silbermann organ in Dresden was released in 2023.

Steinbach has been a featured recitalist and presenter at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, The Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative Festival, and the International Music Symposium in Xi’an China. He has performed at the International Organ Festival at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam; the Courmayeur, Bolzano, Aosta, and Picena international organ festivals in Italy; international organ festivals in Berlin, Halle, Lüneburg, Freiberg, Rötha, Dresden, Halle, Görlitz, and Weimar, Germany; the Audite Organum festival in Prague; and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d’Orléans in France. Steinbach has been featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” performing on the 1640’s English cabinet organ in Wickford, Rhode Island, the oldest church organ in use in the United States. Mr.Steinbach has adjudicated several organ competitions, including the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition.

Steinbach has premiered several new works for the organ, including compositions of Eric Nathan and Wang Lu at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and Berlin’s Nikolai-Kirche, the North American premiere of Nico Muhly’s “O Antiphon Preludes” at Brown University and the world premiere of Daniel Pinkham’s “Odes.” In 2018 he was in residence at Xi’an Conservatory of Music in China to teach and perform.

Steinbach earned the Bachelor of Music in music performance from the University of Kansas with honors. As a Fulbright scholar he studied at the Universität für Musik und darstel- lende Kunst in Vienna. He earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester.