Van Paassen made his debut in the
well-known Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Tchaikovsky’s first piano-concerto
in 1982. This concert was attended by members
of the royal family. He appeared frequently as a soloist with
symphony and radio orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad in the years following his
debut. World Wild Life Fund carried on a campaign using his first solo album,
"The animal in 20th century piano-music'. This CD was broadcasted by many
radio-stations and sold out in no time. This was an occasion for Van Paassen to
make several front-pages.He was invited to festivals in France (Consonances) Rumania (George Enescu) and the Netherlands (NSDM, Nederlandse muziekdagen,
Cristofori/ AVRO pianofestival (Amsterdam), kamermuziek in het groen (Eindhoven), St Petersburgfestival (Rotterdam), Schumannmarathon- VPRO-Amsterdam).He
participated several times in theatre productions by the Dutch composer Louis
Andriessen.
One of the big projects in his
professional life was the Anton Rubinstein project, which started in 1981. Van
Paassen has tried to accomplish a revaluation of the Russian composer Anton
Rubinstein (1829- 1894) from St-Petersburg. This resulted in two CD's, radio-
performances of Rubinsteins piano-concertos and chamber-music and solo-recitals
in a number of European countries (Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Rumania and Sweden, The Netherlands). In 1994, 100 years
after Rubinstein’s death, Van Paassen gave a master class in Petersburg at the conservatory founded by
Rubinstein.
In 1996 Van Paassen had the honour to
inaugurate the old, renovated House of
Parliament with 'Le Bal', opus 14 by Anton Rubinstein. His performance
was attended by Prime Minister
Wim Kok and many other
prominent politicians.
In 1998 Van Paassen gave a recital in Amsterdam, entirely devoted to his own
compositions. The concert took place in the ‘IJsbreker’, the well known centre
for contemporary music, which now operates under a new name on a new location:
het muziekgebouw. Dutch radio (VPRO) recorded the recital and this recording
was released as a live recording by attacca: ‘the Amsterdam recital’.
In 2009 he collaborated with the young
composer Paul Oomen en sound artist and DJ ‘Salvador’ (Breed) with appearances
ao at ‘Earport Amsterdam’ and EKSTATIC AUDITORIA/ THE NIGHT CHURCH at
‘Smart Project Space’ in Amsterdam.
Marius van Paassen made many recordings
for Dutch radio at nearly all national broadcasting organisations : 
AVRO,
VPRO,
KRO,
EO, NCRV,
VARA,
VERONICA,
TROS,
NOS,
NOB etc. His CD's have also been broadcasted
on news-radio, which is quite special for a classical pianist
nowadays.
Conductors he worked with (selection): Ronald
Zollman, Lucas
Vis, Louis Stotijn, Alexandrou Munteanu,Kenneth
Montgomery, Roland Kieft, Anton Kersjes,
Hein
Jordans, Jules van
Hessen, Zsolt Deaky Alexander
Anissimov.
Marius van Paassen is piano professor at the
ArtEZ conservatory Enschede(The
Netherlands) and teaches piano in his private piano-school (ABC
piano-school) in Amsterdam . There is more on this, see contents.
Van Paassen played chamber music with a lot of musicians:
well known soloists and members of the Concertgebouw orchestra and Radio
Phylharmonic. He created ( text, theatre and music) a series of
150 concerts for children.
He received his first piano lessons from Mrs van der
Minnen in Utrecht and Mrs Ans Verbeek also in Utrecht. After two years at the
university of Amsterdam ( subjects: psychology, philosophy and sociology) he
started his professional study as a soloist at the music academy in Amsterdam
(Hans Dercksen for 5 very instructive years, one instructive year with Willem
Brons, a course with Daniel Wayenberg organised by Dutch radio, subject playing
a piano concerto with a radio orchestra). His final exam was one of the best of
several years and did win him cum laude. Afterwards Dutch Government enabled
him to continue his study in Germany with one of the wisest and finest teachers
in Germany: Hans Leygraf.