Paul Stark

Biography

Motto

Music is a magical universal language without boundaries. I want to communicate with people around the world, playing music in all styles imaginable as pure and natural as possible.

Overview

Paul Stark has shown to be very versatile in terms of musical styles and genres.

As leader of the Paul Stark Trio he recorded two albums Le-Voi-La (1999) and Sonata (2010). As a co-leader of the formation StarkLinnemann he recorded seven albums Awake (2014), Transcending Chopin Volume 1 (2016), Transcending Chopin Volume 2&3 (2016), Pictures at an Exhibition (2019), Transcending Beethoven Vol. 1 (2020), Transcending Beethoven Vol. 2 (2021) and Transcending Liszt Vol. 1 (2022). The genre of StarkLinnemann is best described as Universal Crossover Music.

After Paul Stark graduated at the University of Utrecht (NLD) in 1995 and the Rotterdam Conservatory (NLD) in 2001, he continued to develop musically as a pianist in both classical music and jazz, composer of original music, re-composer of classical masterpieces, musicologist and piano teacher. He has worked with many renowned Jazz musicians.

He is currently residing in Oude-Tonge (NLD) with his wife Jacquelien Wielaard. From there he is performing with the StarkLinnemann Trio / Quartet / Quintet and subbing with several musicians throughout Europe. At the moment he is promoting a new StarkLinnemann album entitled Transcending Liszt Vol 1 which will be released for UCM records in December 2022. He’s also working on a new project called ‘Eroica’ (a re-composition of Beethoven’s third symphony for jazzquintet) which will be recorded in 2023.

Style and inspiration

All the great legendary jazz pianists like Keith Jarrett, Ahmad Jamal, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Kelly, Brad Mehldau, Bill Evans as well as saxofonists John Coltrane and Brandford Marsalis, guitarist Pat Metheny and of course Miles Davis are a huge inspiration for Paul Stark. His original style as a pianist and a composer have been greatly influenced by Cuban and Brazilian music as well as classical music. As a classical pianist Paul likes to play Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Grieg, Shostakovich among many oyher composers.