"Throughout the evening Gees played as if he had composed the pieces himself and was therefore extremely vigilant to make sure the performance was carried out according to his inner ear. His eyes were not those of an artist intent on reproduction, but shone rather a lambent look of passion, just as one might imagine the composer as the creator.“ N. Campogrande Michael Gees’ biography certainly justifies the term: exceptional. Few others can claim to have a career already behind them at the tender age of fifteen: Born in 1953 into a world of sound and music, both parents are singers, the piano is his favourite toy at age three. Formal piano lessons follow at age five, and the young musician subsequently goes on to win the Steinway Competition at age eight and receives a scholarship at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
The child prodigy is hailed as “Westphalian Mozart“, takes up studies at the conservatories in Detmold and Vienna and it seems as if he is fast on his way to become an internationally acclaimed pianist. Were it not for the gifted child’s longing to explore the world of sound on his own terms, to playfully experience his self like the great masters’ music, to invent their music all over again, note for note instead of limiting himself to a technical practice regimen. Michael Gees flees the pressure of a predetermined competitional career at the age of fifteen, leaves school, conservatory and home behind, supports himself through odd jobs, works as archeological assistant and, in the process, for the duration of two full years, becomes a sailor.
Chance leads him back to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, where he resumes his compositional studies and eventually graduates. He now develops first rate pianistic chops on his own, composes a number of works, gains international renown as lied accompanist of extraordinary proportions with Christoph Prégardien and also appears in concerts globally; in Paris, London, New York and Tokio. All the while, he nurses and feeds his preference for combining the performance of music of past masters with living inspiration, thereby creating remarkable performances with his instrument.
In 1989, Gees founds “forum kunstvereint“ in his adopted hometown of Gelsenkirchen; the Consol Theater, also installed by him, opens its doors in 2001 on the confines of the former mining area Consolidation. There, music, dance and theatre projects take shape, where children, youths and adults alike are incited and encouraged to discover and realize their own artistic impulses. A steady number of CDs have been released from 1996 onward on forum kunstvereint, CPO and EMI, showcasing Michael Gees’ range.
Since 2008 Michael Gees is associated to the Netherlands label Challenge Classics. The 2009 release of the Schöne Müllerin with Christoph Prégardien won the MIDEM Classical Award and became Recording of the Year. Michael Gees works on solo-recitals which enjoy breaking with tradition, on modernized lied-renditions, melodramas and stage music.

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.