Frank Mol
Frank Mol was a Dutch composer and pianist. He was born in Culemborg on 8 November 1957 and died in Amsterdam on 27 December 2000.
Mol began piano lessons at the age of seven at the music school in Bergen op Zoom, studying with Annie Piscaer and Yves de Groot. At eleven he moved with his parents to Vlissingen, where he studied at the Zeeland music school with Gé Audenaert. He was already giving concerts and recitals, composing short pieces, and arranging existing compositions.
From 1975, when he was sixteen, Mol studied piano with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He received his Performing Musician diploma in 1982, also took lessons with Willem Brons and Alexandra Hrisanide, and performed with the violinist Mark Lubotsky. He continued his piano studies in London with John Bingham and attended masterclasses given by Tamás Vásáry and Gary Graffman.
In 1983 and 1984, Mol gave recitals in and beyond London and appeared as soloist in Brahms's First Piano Concerto. From 1984 he performed regularly as a soloist with orchestras in major Dutch concert halls. His concerto repertoire included works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Franck, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Hindemith.
He gave duo recitals with the flautist Leendert de Jonge and the violinist Jean-Paul Tavenier. He performed with the cellist Pieter Wispelwey in the Small Hall of the Concertgebouw, and gave many recitals with the British violist Prunella Pacey. He also participated in a recording of music by Margot Wright with Pacey.
As a teacher at music schools in Tarragona and Lucena, Spain, Mol performed frequently, with several appearances broadcast on Spanish television. During the summer he taught at the Aula de Música of the University of Alcalá in Madrid, including teaching the pianist Pablo Jara. He also served as a regular substitute pianist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, performing with it in the Netherlands and abroad.
For the Netherlands Film Museum, Mol wrote film music and worked with Ton van Erp on scores for early twentieth-century silent films including South and Submarine. They accompanied these films at venues including the Louvre in Paris. Mol received the Zeeland Talent Encouragement Prize in 1981 and won first and second prizes in London competitions for performances of Schumann and Chopin in 1983 and 1984.
His compositions included works for and commissioned by the Film Museum and the Escher Ensemble, as well as music for solo piano, voice and piano, and saxophone and piano. His Dutch-language opera Gaslight, with a libretto by Tom Sol, was written for the Escher Ensemble and premiered at the Rotterdam Theatre on 10 November 1999. Conducted by Rolff Buijs, it was a free adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's play Gas Light and the 1944 film of the same name, and subsequently toured theatres in the Netherlands.