Mathias Claus

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Mathias Claus (born May 15, 1956 in Waiblingen ) is a German pianist and composer of contemporary jazz as well as a music producer .

Life

Through his father, a church organist with a penchant for improvisational performance, Claus came into contact with music early on. He started out with a classical school music course for piano . To specialize in jazz piano playing and the art of arranging, studies at Berklee College of Music with Ray Santisi followed . Early music prizes, audio, radio and television recordings as well as concerts in neighboring European countries favored his further music studies. He moved to the University of Music and Theater Hamburg , where he completed his diploma studies in 1989 with Dieter Glawischnig , with distinction in the field of jazz and jazz-related music. Here he also studied classical piano with Shigeko Takeya . Claus teaches jazz piano at the Braunschweig Municipal Music School .

Act

After setting up his own studio, Mathias Claus produced CDs around the world with well-known musicians from the young cyberjazz scene, mainly in the USA. He worked with Peggy Morris , Nigel Hitchcock , Laurence Cottle , Sue Maskaleris , Daniel Martina , Fillipo Bertacche , and others. v. a. An innovation award from the Bundesfonds Soziokultur ev for its transatlantic project Cyberfriends (CD plus Germany tour) and international attention followed.

In 2004 he was appointed lecturer for jazz piano at the Braunschweig Municipal Music School, where he a. a. initiated the jazz piano scholarship series of the Braunschweig Gertrud Fricke Foundation for talented young jazz piano students.

Since 2004 Claus has concentrated heavily on the art of solo play. One of the highlights so far is the participation in the 1st Hamburg Jazz Solo Piano Summit on June 16, 2007 in the broadcasting hall of the NDR Hamburg.

He recently completed other concerts with international artists such as Eliane Elias , the hr big band , Eyran Katsenelenbogen , but also classical stars such as Nina Corti and Zhang Hai'ou .

For several years the pianist has also worked as an accompanist for international vocalists, among others. a. 4 CD productions in the USA plus a tour of Germany with Peggy Morris, and since 2007 with Misha Steinhauer , jazz vocalist from George Gershwin College Moscow and winner of the Yesenin Competition for young Russian composers. He also worked with the American vocalists Gayle Tufts and Rachel Gould .

As a composer he received commissioned compositions a. a. from the University of Fine Arts Braunschweig . He also wrote a piano sheet music series for popular music and was also involved in recordings for NDR, SDR, SWR, ERF and ZDF.

Awards

Mathias Claus received a GEMA scholarship, was a prizewinner in the popular music competition of the Süddeutscher Rundfunk Baden-Württemberg with his own jazz quintet, and was a finalist in the international jazz competition Hoeillarts in Belgium. His music for an animated film for children (with Axel Brötje) won the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Award in San Francisco .

Web links

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  1. ↑ Feature in “Online Musical Collaborations” on allaboutjazz.com, March 6, 2003.
  2. ↑ “Jazz pianists bang in and on the keys” in: Die Welt from June 18, 2007. John Taylor , Dieter Glawischnig , Anke Helfrich and Michael Wollny continued to give concerts on this radio recording by NDR .
personal data
SURNAME Claus, Mathias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Waiblingen