Biography

“Canada’s Prince of Piano” – that’s how the Beijing Times, China’s leading English-language newspaper, described Canadian pianist and composer Martin Mayer.

His music has been defined as instrumental fusion – a combination of smooth jazz, classical, pop, and rock. Mayer’s European roots add a good share of thoughtful and longing soul, his North American education contributes a healthy dose of high-octane energy. An explosive mix.

After Mayer realized musicianship was who he was, he would study at Royal Conservatory of Music, major in piano performance at Grant MacEwan University and win the Rachel McKeown Memorial Award for composition.

His recordings include Destinations (1998), Live In Concert (2000, nominated for “Outstanding Instrumental Album” at the Prairie Music Awards), This is Who I Am (2003, Nominated for “Outstanding Instrumental Album” at the WCMA Awards), the 2009 single The Orphan Boy, a year-long fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society, Alone (2010) and Unbreakable (2018).

A Chinese Arts Agency took Martin Mayer on a 16-city six-week long concert tour in mainland China in 2001. It would become the biggest tour of any artist in China’s modern history, and all of his tour dates since then would be sold out. He entertained thousands in concert, and millions on Chinese TV. It is one of the few independent Canadian records available on Chinese music-streaming platforms QQ, NetEase, QianQian and Kuwo.

The “Outstanding Alumnus” winner at the Alberta Provincial Awards Celebrating Excellence was also featured by the Czech National Radio Orchestra in a live concert of his music, recorded and broadcast live from one of Prague’s most historic music venues.

Mayer’s latest album, Unbreakable, was listed as one of the Top 25 New Music Critiques of 2018 (Music Connection Magazine, December 2018), attracting radio airplay from across the globe, and becoming one of the few independent Canadian records accessible on China’s top music-streaming platforms.

In 2019, China once again welcomed “Canada’s Prince of Piano” to bring the charm of his music to thousands of concert-goers across 20 cities in the Celestial Empire. Martin Mayer’s latest China tour was the first of a year of Canadian concerts presented to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Canada.

Canada’s National Post predicts that Martin Mayer is “poised to take over the world stage,” while VOGUE of Taiwan opines that the pianist’s “passion for music … can only be described as breath-taking,” and an A&R Factory Music Blog concludes: “Thankfully there are artists such as Martin Mayer to inject a bit of excitement and panache into the format of the pop-piano.”