Deafblind British composer hits the right note for Olympic celebrations
23 July 2012
Just like the heralded classical composer, Mark Pampel (56), is a deaf musical maestro. Mark uses powerful hearing aids to hear the piano solos that he’s been composing for the past year, which will be premiered as part of the London Cultural Olympiad In Westminster on 1 September.
Mark’s disability is doubled by being almost totally blind from a rare genetic condition, Usher Syndrome. As a campaigner for the deafblind charity Sense, Mark is determined to show what people with dual sensory loss can achieve.
Mark has composed two piano concertos, “The Final”, for the Olympics and “Against The Odds” for the Parlaympics, which ‘duck and dive’ through the whole of the piano keyboard, reflecting the athleticism and the journey from training to the medal podium.
Mark says “I cannot wait to premiere this work. Unlike other musicians who read the music notated, I improvise to create the music, then rehearse repeatedly and memorise the works. Composing my music is a brilliant opportunity to show what can be achieved. I like to think of my new works as impactful – I have something to say and hopefully people will sit up and listen!”
Notes
If you would like to meet Mark, have a sneak preview of the solo, or learn more about how someone with little hearing and sight composes a piano concerto contact Coman Kenny at Tel 0207 014 9375
Mark is a member of Coolfusion, one of the largest voluntary sector initiatives in the Cultural Olympiad, Cool Fusion will showcase the excellence and ambition of the capital’s voluntary arts during a summer when the eye of the world is on London. www.coolfusion.org.uk
Biographical details
Mark Pampel has been described by Open Media, and indeed by many listeners, as a communicator of “. . . raw emotion and masterful improvisation”. Mark has played the piano since the age of 5 and his response to blindness and hearing loss has been to radicalise and promulgate his approach as a composer-performer. He has appeared with members of the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Lukes’, has been the subject of an FT Profile, is an activist for the deaf-blind charity Sense and performs regularly for charities and across the new music scene. Also a devotee of yoga and his exercise bike, he regularly rows on the Serpentine in Hyde Park with the London Sports Club for the Blind. Mark’s partly-spontaneous response to Cool Fusion themes will start from conceptualising THE FINAL and Against The Odds.
Mark Pampel's MySpace page