Mark Latimer is an English pianist. His repertoire consists of over 75 performed piano concertos, including the mammoth Concerto for Piano and Chorus by Busoni and the Alkan Concerto for solo piano, of which he made the first live recording. He is also a composer and has had numerous works performed and recorded.

He performed the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto at the age of 12.  He performed the Rachmaninoff 3rd and Prokofiev 2nd piano concertos at the age of 16, shortly followed by a performance of both piano concertos by Brahms (No. 1, No. 2). He became a professor of music at the London College of Music at age 18.

He is also known for his performances of pieces by lesser known composers such as Sorabji, Reger, Honegger, Lambert and others. As well as piano he has also recorded a number of organ works including an hour long organ and prepared piano CD Zeitgeist which is completely improvised. An ongoing series of "Take" jazz CDs have been recorded, alongside his own suite "Exhibitionist at the pictures".

"Critics" opinions of the phenomenal, unclassifiable Mark Latimer may sound like hyperbole until you encounter the artist at work at which time they sound like understatements instead. This resolutely independent performer - an artistic powerhouse - is creating his own special niche in contemporary music" - John Fordham, The Guardian. Historically there is immeasurably less than a handful of musicians who are equally and genuinely adept in both the improvised jazz and classical music spheres. "A great many talk, a very few dabble but Latimer actually DOES"; consequently and unequivocally he is one of the most unparalleled, influential and remarkable. Equally at home in Stockhausen as the Stereophonic, Cage as Coldplay, the Hammerklavier Sonata as the Hammersmith Palais and dubbed "the Renaissance man of music" by his record company, Warner Classics and Jazz, Mark Latimer leads a multi-layered existence as a "piano-auteur-animateur" operating on multi-faced levels, on the one hand composing, performing his own skeletally notated cutting-edge free improvised jazz, on the other a colossal repertoire of concertos, major classical cycles, and in particular non-mainstream and contemporary works, all of which is demonstrated by his new signing to Warner. His immense, all embracing "classical" repertoire, ranging from the earliest keyboard works eg. the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book to various premieres of works by Honegger, Lambert, Schumann, Sorabji etc., as well as in excess of 100 first performances of numerous living composers including the recent premieres of leading contemporary Italian composer Adam Gentile's demanding complete solo works in China and the National Gallery London. Concerto engagements have included rarities by Alan Bush, Busoni (opus 39), Corigliano, Piet Ketting, Rawsthorne, Reger, Scheinkman and so on, have played alongside his free improvised, cutting-edge organic compositions, including his recent suite Exhibitionist at the Pictures performed as part of a recent tour uniquely alongside the Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano (astonishingly, his first South Bank performance in the early 1980's was only the second time this formidable work was played complete in London). Jazz and Classical appearances have taken him to international festivals in the UK, Europe and USA, including international jazz festivals in Birmingham, Brecon, Cheltenham (first artist-in-residence 1997), the first Euroart Festival - London, Modal Contemporary Music Festival, Montreux, Newport R.I., OctoberFest BAC, London, Soho, Trondheim Norway; Holland, France, RSA, Russia, USA, throughout Britain, Classical Festivals including Edinburgh...

www.marklatimer.com