Julia Hülsmann

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Julia Hülsmann

Julia Hülsmann (* 1968 in Bonn ) is a German jazz pianist whose compositions are often based on literary works, especially poetry .

Live and act

Julia Hülsmann received music lessons from the age of eleven; like both parents, she plays the piano . As a teenager she listened to a lot of pop music , with songwriters like Sting and Randy Newman particularly impressing her. Through her piano teacher she heard and played music by Chick Corea , Bill Evans , Michael Brecker and Miles Davis .

During her school days she played keyboards and piano in various line-ups; After a short time in Frankfurt am Main , she moved to Berlin . She trained as a piano teacher and began studying jazz piano in 1991 at the Berlin University of the Arts . Her teachers included Walter Norris , Aki Takase and David Friedman , among others . She was and is particularly influenced in her work by the US pianist and composer Don Grolnick . In 1992, Hülsmann became a member of the Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra , then directed by Peter Herbolzheimer . After graduating in 1996, she founded the Julia Hülsmann Trio together with bassist Marc Muellbauer and drummer Rainer Winch . The trio played music, initially borrowed mainly from the standard jazz repertoire, on various festivals and smaller tours. At the beginning of 2000, Hülsmann took lessons from Richie Beirach , Maria Schneider , Gil Goldstein and Jane Ira Bloom while studying in New York .

At a concert by Wolfgang Muthspiel , she met the Norwegian singer Rebekka Bakken . Hülsmann began to write and compose something for Bakken and released their debut CD Trio with her trio at the end of 2000 . After she had already written some compositions, the difficult path of finding suitable lyrics for the singing project began. She finally struck gold with the poet E. E. Cummings . She was able to win Bakken for her project; In 2003 the album Scattering Poems was released . It was in Germany's top 10 jazz releases for several weeks.

Hülsmann's next project was a homage to the American songwriter Randy Newman. Several of his songs were rearranged by her. At the suggestion of bassist Dieter Ilg , Hülsmann finally invited the Italian singer Anna Lauvergnac , who performed with the Vienna Art Orchestra , among others , to the recordings. In 2004 the edited pieces were released on the ACT label on the Come Closer CD .

On her subsequent project, Hülsmann worked with the singer Roger Cicero . Once again, she was inspired by poetry in her compositions; this time from the pen of the American poet Emily Dickinson . The CD was released in 2006 under the title Good Morning Midnight . With her trio made up of bassist Marc Muellbauer and drummer Heinrich Köbberling , she recorded the CD The End of a Summer with exclusively her own compositions (released in 2008 on the ECM label ). Outside of her own trio, Julia Hülsmann has also performed as a pianist in the United Women's Orchestra , as a guest musician with Judy Niemack , in Meike Goosmann's quintet or in a duo with Angelika Niescier .

Since 2001 she has also been teaching at the University of the Arts in Berlin and holding composition workshops at the University of Music and Theater in Hanover . From 2012 to the end of 2013 she was the chairwoman of the Union of German Jazz Musicians . As the successor to Michael Schiefel , the jazz pianist was able to give impulses to the Moers music scene all year round as an “improviser in residence” .

Honourings and prices

The CD Scattering Poems was awarded the German Jazz Award in gold.

In 2008 Julia Hülsmann's trio received the jazz pot of the Poster Art Hof Rüttenscheid in Essen. In April 2010 she was invited to the (third) German Jazz Meeting with her trio . As a co-initiator of the re-establishment of the Union of German Jazz Musicians in 2012 , she received the honorary award of the WDR Jazz Prize in 2016 . In 2016 she also received the SWR Jazz Prize as a musician, "which gives jazz in Europe trend-setting impulses."

Discography (selection)

  • 2000: Trio (Julia Hülsmann Trio; with Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Winch; BIT)
  • 2003: Scattering Poems (with Rebekka Bakken; ACT)
  • 2004: Come Closer (with Anna Lauvergnac; ACT)
  • 2006: Good Morning Midnight (with Roger Cicero; ACT)
  • 2008: The End of a Summer (Julia Hülsmann Trio; with Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Köbberling; ECM)
  • 2009: Fasıl (with Marc Sinan , Yelena Kuljic , Lena Thies, Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Köbberling; ECM)
  • 2011: Imprint (Julia Hülsmann Trio; with Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Köbberling; ECM)
  • 2013: In Full View (Julia Hülsmann Quartet; with Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Köbberling and Tom Arthurs ; ECM)
  • 2015: A Clear Midnight - Kurt Weill and America (Julia Hülsmann & Theo Bleckmann; ECM)
  • 2017: Sooner and Later (Julia Hülsmann Trio; with Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Köbberling; ECM)
  • 2019: Not Far from Here (Julia Hülsmann Quartet; with Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Köbberling and Uli Kempendorff ; ECM)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The music critic Robert Fischer praised her for being able "with changing singers to not only set poems by EE Cummings and Emily Dickinson ... but to breathe a whole new musical life into them". - The same: Anything goes. In: Michael Jacobs: All that Jazz. The story of a music. 3rd, exp. and act. Output. Reclam 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-021684-2 , p. 444.
  2. ↑ Gebhard Ullmann takes over the chairmanship of the Union of German Jazz Musicians , Jazzzeitung from November 27, 2013, accessed December 11, 2013
  3. ↑ Moers: Julia Hülsmann is the new city musician , Rheinische Post from December 10, 2013, accessed December 11, 2013
  4. ↑ Gold / platinum database of the Federal Music Industry Association, accessed June 12, 2016
  5. ↑ WAZ: Climbed the summit
  6. ↑ www.germanjazzmeeting.de ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Award for jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann
  8. ^ Die Zeit April 11, 2015: No sound too much (review by Stefan Gentz)
  9. ↑ Bert Noglik CD tip (SWR2)
  10. ↑ Review: Michael Rüsenberg: JULIA HÜLSMANN QUARTET Not far from here. In: JazzCity. November 19, 2019, accessed December 10, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hülsmann, Julia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn