BIOGRAPHY

Carl Mansker, born in Los Angeles, California in 1935, started to learn piano at the age of nine. From the beginning he preferred to improvise rather than practice. His teacher at that time, Samuel Ball, encouraged him to write down these improvisations.

Years later, following a short stint in the U.S. Navy and a year in New York City he went to the University of California and made his bachelors degree in music. After a further year of study in New York City he went to Munich where he received a scholarship from the Bavarian State to study piano with Professor Rosl Schmid at the Musikhochschule München. After graduating (1967) he spent several years concertizing throughout Europe.

In 1965, during a concert tour of Spain, he fell in love with the mountain village of Deià on Mallorca. He has actively participated in the Deià International Music Festival, since its founding in 1978, as a composer and performer. In 1987 he was commissioned to write an opera for the festival's tenth anniversary. He composed El bon senyor Karnak to a libretto in Catalan by Josp Maria Llompart, based on the radio play Hunger by Jakov Lind. It was premiered in June 1988, opening the music festival in the Teatro Principal in Palma de Mallorca. Since 1969 Carl and his wife, the Swiss painter Antoinette Mansker, divide their time between Münich an Deià.

Though he still teaches and concertizes, he devotes himself mainly to composition. His works have been performed in many countries from Australia to Turkey and many have been recorded by the Bavarian State Radio. In addition to the opera, he has written many songs (including 23 settings of Japanese Haiku), chamber music, a piano concerto, a concerto grosso and the Sinfonie Algabal.