Mark Uranker

Mark Uranker

Professor Emeritus, Piano

e-mail: mark.uranker@csulb.edu

Mark Uranker joined the Department of Music faculty in 1999. He has enjoyed a varied career as a concert pianist, chamber musician, composer and dance musician. He has concertized extensively and has premiered the works of many composers. He has performed at many venues such as the Luckman Center for the Arts, The Carpenter Performing Arts Center, California Institute of the Arts, The Palm Springs Winterfest Bach Festival, and the Sundays at Four program on KUSC, a live broadcast from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

He has composed for both theater and dance; his works include incidental music for Moliere’s Bourgeois Gentleman, Peter Shaffer’s Royal Hunt of the Sun and music for prominent choreographers. Mark composed and directed the music for the Gala Opening of the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Photo of Orpheus Duo

The Orpheus Duo

Pianists Mark Uranker and Althea Waites have combined their talents and performing experience to form a keyboard ensemble, The Orpheus Duo. Both artists have concertized extensively as soloists and chamber musicians throughout the United States and Europe and have been critically acclaimed for their performances of new music as well as familiar works from the the traditional duo-piano repertoire. Works written for the Orpheus Duo include those by composers Martin Herman, Carolyn Bremer, and Robin Cox. Recent concerts have included music of Messiaen, Brahms, Stravinsky, and Lloyd Rogers, as well as Mr. Uranker’s arrangement of dances from Manuel De Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat. Both artists are on the keyboard faculty at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach and are in demand for concerts throughout the country. They are currently preparing a recording of works by Debussy, Stravinsky, and Brahms.