About Me
Paul Gulda was born 1961 in Vienna, Austria. First piano lessons with Roland Batik; later taking on recorder and clarinet at Vienna´s Music Academy. Further piano studies with his father Friedrich Gulda, Leonid Brumberg, and finally with Rudolf Serkin in Vermont, USA, completing the course in 1987. Repeated participation at the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival.
At the outset of his career, Mr. Gulda appeared frequently as part of the piano-duet formed with his first teacher Mr. Batik. These unusual concerts included both classical and Improvised/Jazz Music.
Later on he split his activities between chamber music (most notably playing with cellist Heinrich Schiff, the Hagen Quartet and its individual members, as well as the Wien-Berlin woodwind ensemble) and solo work, playing recitals as well as with orchestras throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Prominently figuring among these were the Vienna Symphony, RSO Vienna, Mozarteum Salzburg; Gewandhaus Leipzig, Beethovenhalle Bonn, chamber orchestras of Vienna, Cologne, Munich, Camerata Academica Salzburg and St. Martin in the Fields of London; The Moscow Radio Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Sao Paulo Philharmonic.
Mr. Gulda worked with conductors such as Hans Graf, Leopold Hager, Gunther Herbig, L.v. Matacic, Kurt Masur, Yehudi Menuhin and Sandor Végh. His debut with the Vienna Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, playing Gershwin´s Rhapsody in Blue was broadcast live on Austrian Television and to the highest acclaim by audience and critics.
Recordings comprise chamber music with the Hagen´s on Deutsche Grammophon. Solo works by Schumann and Beethoven on Naxos and MUSICA/Denon. Shostakovich Piano Concertos with the RSO Moscow under Vladimir Fedosejev, and Beethovens Cello/Piano Music with Clemens Hagen on JVC.
Paul Gulda has ventured into diverse musical areas off the main track. Starting in 1995, he has contributed music to several plays in Austrian theatres -1997 he gave his conducting debut in Linz.
1997/98 saw him conceiving and presenting programs combining music and literature:
- on Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine and Bertolt Brecht, the latter including a number of new settings by Mr. Gulda.
- A „Musical Discourse†on texts by camp survivors, conceived and composed by Mr. Gulda,
was commissioned and premiered at the 54th liberation ceremony of the Mauthausen concentration camp, on May 9th, 1999.
His interests in the multiethnic heritage of Eastern Austria have, in 1993, brought forth the highly successful project „Haydn alla Zingareseâ€, uniting classical players and a Gypsy-Band in the demonstration of the Gypsy influence on Haydn´s music.
In 1997, he has produced and recorded the complete chamber music of Brahms´ closest friend Joseph Joachim, including several world premiere recordings.
Starting to teach in 1998, Mr. Gulda has since given masterclasses in Austria, Germany, France and Poland. He held the position as guest professor at Vienna’s Music University from 2001-2003.
