Falko Steinbach

Falko Steinbach (born 30 September 1957 in Aachen, Germany) is a German/American pianist, composer and piano pedagogue. As a Steinway Artist, Steinbach is an expert in the classical repertory, but is also a specialist in contemporary music, acclaimed for his inexhaustible fantasy, “mesmerizing sound,” and versatile piano technique. In 1999 he joined the music faculty at the University of New Mexico and became a full professor of piano in 2010. He was granted US citizenship in 2011, and now as a dual national, he continues an extended international performance career as a soloist, recording artist and collaborative performer in America, Europe and Asia. He is a noted teacher of piano and composition, and author of several significant pedagogical works including an acclaimed volume on piano methodology, “A Compendium of Piano Technique”. He is frequently invited to give lectures, master classes, and recitals at international music festivals, academic conferences, and universities worldwide, and to act as judge for national and international piano competitions

Steinbach was born in Aachen, and is the eldest of four children. His father, Dr. Hans Horst Steinbach, was a chemist and researcher who married Martha Gawellek, a chemical technical assistant who left her career to become a full-time homemaker and parent shortly after their marriage. Dr H. H. Steinbach accepted a position with the Bayer Corporation as a researcher and inventor when his son was two years old, and the family relocated to Leverkusen for the next three years. They then took up a more permanent residence in nearby Bergisch Gladbach, Schildgen where the young Steinbach would attend elementary school after age five. The elder Steinbach became a talented and successful chemist, and developed hundreds of patented chemical compounds, solutions, and lubricants as a researcher with Bayer, and his career, which extended beyond Germany to South Africa and South America, brought the family into contact with diverse cultural influences since they frequently hosted guests from around the world.

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