Marion von Tilzer (A/NL) started playing the piano at the age of eight. At fourteen she met her principal teacher, the American pianist Suzanne Bradbury, with whom she has studied in Germany and Mallorca, Spain for several years. In 1989 she came to Holland to study classical piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory a.o. with Ludmilla Baslawskaya. Since then she has been based in Holland.
For almost ten years Marion has been traveling to India regularly to study Indian music and give concerts with the renown Indian Khayal singer Neela Bhagwat. Over the years Marion developed a unique way of combining Indian and western classical music.
In 2008 she was commissioned to write two pieces for Orchestra by the German Radio Symphony Orchestra of the WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne). In both works she creates a combination of Indian music and instruments with the western orchestra. One of the pieces (Kisagotami Ouverture for Orchestra) received an Honorable Mention from the Theodore Front Prize for Chamber and Orchestral music from the International Alliance of Women in Music in 2010.
Other commissions include a piece for the City of Amsterdam, which was premiered at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 2007, new work for the Amstel Saxophone Quartet, premiered in 2009. Marion's latest Album 'Kirvani Revisted' with her new chamber ensemble was released on the Dutch label Challenge Records (2008). She appeared on the Dutch VPRO TV program 'Vrije Geluiden' with her ensemble in May 2009. Her latest piece 'The Blue Planet – Homage to Mother Earth', a commission for the Amsterdam venue The Orgelpark for string trio, organ, sarangi and tabla was premiered in January 2010. Her long year collaborator Frank Händeler created the choreography for this piece (danced by Indian dancer Kalpana Raghuraman). She has also been performing regularly with her solo piano program called 'Song for Good Luck', a program where storytelling is interwoven with her piano pieces.
Music for film and dance Music for 13 part television documentary 'Van Weelden over Water' (2010, Dutch Television) Music for 'Lou Bioux – The Feast of the Fabulous Bull" a film by Second Skin Production, Jascha de Wilde Commercial music for a new Nike clip (2008) 'Prima Materia', a short silent film by Daan Noppen (2006) 'Deseased', short silent film by Benjamin Winfield (2007) 'Groeten van de Afsluitdijk' by the Dutch documentary maker John Appel (2001) 'April's Dancing' by Irish animator Una Gildea (2000).
'Earthlinks' a music/theater piece directed by Felix de Rooy and choreographed by Elshout & Händeler.
Marion has composed and played the music live for this show which toured in Jan/Feb 2004. 'Sirenade' a dance theater piece by Elshout & Händeler for the Oerol Festival in Holland for which Marion wrote and played the music live in the dunes (June 2004), tour with 'Sirenade' July 2005. She has also written the music for the new piece 'Gemini' of Elshout&Händeler (2005). Another collaboration was with Elshout's most recent piece 'L – the woman who challenged God' at the Over 't IJ Festival in 2007. In July 2008 she collaborated making the music live with the Brazilian percussionist Bira Reis in Salvador de Bahia for the dance theater performance "Metamorphosis' by Frank Händeler.
Other activities in the past till present In 1999 Marion founded the group 'Aros', a six-piece new-Jazz band together with the Canadian saxophonist/composer Rob Armus. They performed regularly in Holland, Vienna, and Canada (International Vancouver Jazz Festival, Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival in June 2002, Bimhuis, North Sea Jazz Festival, Holland in 2004). To promote their album 'Train Song' Aros toured in Canada again in November 2003.
Since 2002 Marion has had concerts with the Indian classical singer Neela Bhagwat in Holland (2002-2004) and in Bombay (2003, 2005 at the National Center for the Arts).
In 2003/04 she has been performing throughout Holland with 'AhimsA' with the Indian singer Sandhya Sanjana and the Dutch tabla player Heiko Dijker. A great deal of these groups' repertoires has been composed and arranged by Marion.
As a pianist she has performed contemporary music with the Canadian soprano Janice Jackson throughout Holland (1997/98) and with Yannis Kyriakides' electro/acoustic group 'Circadian' she played concerts throughout Holland, in Cyprus, England (Aldeburgh Festival, The Ocean in London, The Tate Gallery, Cambridge), in Norway (Ultima Festival, Oslo), Belgium (Gent), Slovenia (Lublijana Festival for contemporary Art), in Athens and at Williams Forsythe's Festival at the Frankfurt Ballet in 2003.