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The Swiss-born pianist, composer and music pedagogue, Ursula Ingolfsson-Fassbind, is the daughter of renowned writer and poet Franz Fassbind. Enchanted with music at a very young age, she began playing the piano at the age of 4 and made her first public appearance at age 6. She studied with Theodor Lerch and later with Sava Savoff at the Zürich Konservatorium and Musikhochschule, where she earned the National Teacher's Certificate at the age of 20. The same year she played her debut at the Tonhalle Zürich. At the Mozarteum Salzburg she studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, who decisively motivated her playing for many years. She received her Artist Diploma in Zürich 1968. The following years she worked with American composer Richard Faith and studied composition with Robert McBright at the University of Arizona.
Ursula Ingolfsson-Fassbind lived for seven years in Reykjavik. There she recorded and lectured on piano music with special attention to baroque and the second Viennese School. Under the direction of Maestro Karsten Andersen she recorded Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto for the composer's hunderth birthday celebration. She toured regularly as a soloist and recitalist and made numerous recordings for European radio stations. Earning high acclaim from critics as well as audiences she toured Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland performing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) on 11 concert stages.
Since 1980, Ursula Ingolfsson-Fassbind has lived in the USA. Devoting herself to chamber music and teaching, she has worked, performed, and recorded with many noted artists. With two of her daughters she founded the Ingolfsson Trio, which for several years gave concerts in the USA and in Europe. The trio also recorded for European radio and television and for PBS in the USA. In 2001 she founded her own Music school The Leopold Mozart Academy (LMA) in order to devote herself to teaching, sharing her own fine education and her 50 years of experience.
Ursula Ingolfsson-Fassbind is a member of BMI, the American Composer's Guild, with works published by International Music Company in New York and is preparing an extensive analysis of the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988). She is a dedicated pedagogue with over 35 years of experience in teaching. She has taught at the Konservatorium and Musikhochschule Zürich, and at the Music College in Reykjavik, Iceland. She has also given master-classes in Germany and the USA. Several of her former students enjoy successful careers in music, as performers, musicologists, and music educators. During the past 13 years her students have continued on to Mannes School of Music in New York, Julliard , and the Mannhattan School of Music. Many have won local and international competitions. For many years she has been doing research on the development of the musically gifted child. In 1987 she joined the faculty at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. In 2001 she founded her own school for piano and string playing: "The Leopold Mozart Academy".
In the spring of 2002, Ursula Ingolfsson-Fassbind was nominated and selected for “Who’s Who among America’s Teachers”. Later that same year, she was nominated for ‘Who’s Who among American Women”, “ Who is Who in The World” and “Who is Who in Education”. In February 2003 she was awarded a Grant for “strong commitment to excellence in music education” by the Willmington Piano Company. In 2004 her Biography was included in the second edition of Great Minds of the 21st Century by the American Biographical Institute. She currently lives in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. She is married and has 3 daughters: Bera Kunitsky, Judith Ingolfsson, and cKatla S Jackson. |
