Bernd Köppen

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Bernd Köppen (born September 4, 1951 in Wuppertal ; † December 9, 2014 there ) was a pianist, organist and composer who worked in the area between jazz and new music .

Act

Köppen had piano lessons from 1958 and trained as a singer in the Wuppertaler Kurrende . Between 1965 and 1969 he studied music with Ingo Schmitt at the Bergisches Landeskonservatorium, then he deepened his studies in the fields of piano and composition at the Cologne University of Music . Since 1969 he has improvised with Detlef Schönenberg , Gerd Dudek , Rüdiger Carl and Günter Christmann . He also worked as a chamber music and song accompanist. From 1972 he led his own groups as a pianist, but also worked with Hans Reichel , Fred Braceful , Peter Kowald and Peter Brötzmann . From 1975 to 1979 he worked in a quartet with Radu Malfatti , Wilfried Eichhorn and Uli Weiche. In 1981 Köppen presented his first solo album, “Haneköppen”, which was followed in 1988 with “Thank to…”, a study of the music of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monks . A duo with Theo Jörgensmann (LP “For the last guest”, 1986) later expanded to include musicians such as Ernst Reijseger , Han Bennink , Krzysztof Zgraja or Frank Köllges to form the “European Way Ensemble”. He also worked with Irène Schweizer and Károly Binder . In 1992 he formed a trio with Kent Carter and Bill Elgart . Since 2004 he has performed with the saxophonist Andreas Bär (CD “Wide Rooms”, 2006). After a twelve-year break, Köppen has been working again with Theo Jörgensmann in a duo since 2011 (CD “The Story of Professor Unrat”, 2011).

In the mid-1980s he turned to the church organ , initially in a duo with Heinz Becker or in a trio with Becker and Hannes Zerbe . There were also solo concerts. Since 1995 he has been the organist and cantor of the Sophienkirche in Wuppertal. There he also directed the concert series unERHÖRT (with more than 180 concerts) and the improvisation series Open Church - Workshop .

As a composer, he developed a "fragmentary" composition technique that worked with series as well as incorporating ethnic and jazz elements.

Lexigraphic entries

literature

  • E. Dieter Fränzel, Sounds like Whoopataal , Wuppertal in the world of jazz, Klartext 2006, ISBN 3-89861-466-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wuppertal pianist Bernd Köppen dies (WDR) , accessed December 15, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Köppen, Bernd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Wuppertal
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2014
Place of death Wuppertal