Roland Batik

The Austrian pianist, composer and teacher, Roland Batik, was born 1951 in Vienna. He received his training as a pianist at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts and continued his education with Friedrich Gulda. At the same time, he specialized as a jazz pianist with Fritz Pauer. His debut was in 1975 at the Vienna Musikverein.

Roland Batik achieved great success together with Paul Gulda. The duo performed between 1982 and 1988 with the Wiener Symphoniker, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra and many others in all major cities and concert halls of Europe. From  1988, both dedicated themselves to their careers as soloists. Roland Batik created his very own personal style, performing piano recitals featuring a combination of his own compositions with a classical, romantic and impressionist repertoire. His first solo recordings by EMI are from this period during which he played Bach, Mozart and own compositions. He also pursued his own style in various chamber music formations in which he took part not only as a pianist but also as a composer.

This meant also a deeper involvement with the trio he founded in 1977 (together with Heinrich Werkl - bass, Walter Grassmann - drums). Apart from the numerous performances at traditional concert halls and jazz clubs, the work of the Roland Batik trio is documented in numerous radio and television recordings and also on four CDs that contain almost exclusively his compositions. The Roland Batik Trio has developed its own unmistakable jazz style over the past few years. The compositions reveal a strong sense of formal unity and are at the same time a challenge to creativity and spontaneity in improvisation.

Roland Batik's career as a soloist culminated in 1991 when he was awarded the recording prize "Wiener Flötenuhr" for his complete recordings of the piano sonata of W. A. Mozart as the best interpretation of the year. He subsequently went on a tour of Japan and accepted many invitations to prominent music festivals such as the Bregenzer Festspiele, Carinthischer Sommer and Wiener Musiksommer.

The premiere of his first piano concert “Meditation upon Peace” at the Vienna Konzerthaus 1993 was a great success. In 1999, Roland Batik finished the complete recording of the piano sonatas of Joseph Haydn – with euphoric reviews in the printed media and radio.

In November 2000, Batik was awarded the culture prize of the Province of Lower Austria for extraordinary achievements as a musician and composer.

In February 2004, Batik’s second Piano concert had its world premiere with the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz/Austria and was received enthusiastically by the audience.

In November 2011 his 60th birthday was celebrated with a major portrait concert in the Austrian Broadcast concert hall.