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Mark Hauser

Mark Hauser, saxophonist and mouthpiece maker

About Me

Hauser embarked on his musical career at the age of 15 as a saxophonist. After two years at the St. Gallen jazz school, he studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and graduated in 1993 with a major in performance. He spent further years studying with Kenny Garrett, Joe Viola, Hal Crook, George Garzone and Jerry Bergonzi. Furnished with a scholarship, he continued training at New York's Manhattan School of Music, where he refined his repertoire and became a professional musician. In 2011 he once again spent time studying abroad, in Brazilian Salvador da Bahia. His dealings with South American idioms and jazz improvisations influence his earliest compositions.

As a band leader, Hauser not only realised his own projects, he was also the “side man” in a variety of formations and ensembles. As such he toured with the Swiss big band leader Pepe Lienhard, with Udo Jürgens, Billy Joel, with Brand New Rhythm in Mexico and Europe, and with the Phil Dankner Seat Music Session in Switzerland. Of his projects as band leader, both Vol. I and II of “Boleros y Tangos”, “There’s a Way out”, “No Joke”, “NuTube” and “A Tribute to Art Pepper” count among his most outstanding creations. Art Pepper, the American alto saxophonist, is one of his idols.

A further project is “NuTube”. It is a form of Nu Jazz, which came into being in the mid 1990s in countries including the USA, Mexico, France and Brazil. Hauser takes social trends of this style – as are expressed for example in Herbie Hancock’s Future Shock or by France's St. Germain – and develops his own musical concept from these. NuTube combines electronic music such as chill out and house with live instrumental music and is characterised by its polyvalent style, rhythm and formations.

Hauser's music is sensitively and finely composed and arranged. The artistic identity of Hauser can be described as polystylistic and cosmopolitan. He moves between jazz (swing, be bop, hard bop), South American music and funk, pop and rock. His music is on the one hand lively and full of energy, whilst also being sensitive, charged with emotion and an expression of a true passion for the transcendent.

Hauser developed new mouthpieces for saxophones. During his time spent studying in the USA, the trained toolmaker embarked on research and literature studies in order to develop his own mouthpieces. Together with his brother he has been producing individual pieces aimed at the requirements of saxophonists since 2004. Since 2007, in addition to saxophonists in Europe, musicians such as Kenny Garrett and Chico Freeman have also been playing with ”hausertone” mouthpieces.

In addition to his work as a freelance musician, he is also a lecturer and examiner at universities and provides private tuition.