Thomas Mejer

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Thomas Mejer next to his double bass saxophone

Thomas KJ Mejer ( Thomas Kurt Josef Mejer ; born June 12, 1961 in Lucerne ) is a Swiss saxophonist and composer. He teaches music at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and also heads the CD label earup, which is dedicated to experimental music in the border area between new music and jazz .

Life

Mejer studied saxophone with Urs Leimgruber (Lucerne Jazz School), Marcus Weiss (Lucerne Conservatory) and Mick Green (Dartington College of Art, GB) and composition with Vinko Globokar , Per Nørgård and Michael Finnissy (Sussex University). His compositions have been performed by the Allegri Quartet, the BBC Singers, Ny Dansk Saxofon Kvartett, Cambridge New Music Players, Vision Saxofon-Quartet, basel sinfonietta and the Moscow New Music Ensemble. As a composer, he has been working with tuned noises and anatomical rhythms (heart rhythm, pulse, breath) for several years.

As a saxophonist, Mejer specialized in the double bass saxophone and preferred bass-heavy formations such as the KONTRA-Trio, Chicago Basses, TwoTubax, Masul, Keefe Jackson 's Likely So. He improvised music a. a. with Martin Schütz , Fredy Studer , Michael Zerang , Fred Lonberg-Holm , Keefe Jackson. With the KONTRA-Trio he toured England, Scandinavia, Russia, Indonesia and made a guest appearance in 2017 in Odessa at the TwoNightsTwoDays Festival and the Festival of electroacoustic music VOX ELECTRONICA in Lviv.

Thomas Mejer worked on the project at the Willisau Jazz Archive web portal .

Works and compositions (selection)

  • 1989 The Minstrel is Entering Virtual Reality , for octet (fl, cl, oboe, hn, harp, vn, va, vc); Jane Manings Minstrels @ Dartington UK, August 24, 1989 |
  • 1990 Sulpizianische Bilderwelt , for saxophone quartet (ss, as, ts, bs); New Danish Saxophone Quartet @ Copenhagen DK, July 15, 1993
  • 1994 Ahn-Nachtung , for chamber orchestra; Orchester della Svizzera italiana @ Settimane Musicali d'Ascona, Locarno CH, October 8, 1998
  • 2001 sulfur , for 3 improvising soloists and large orchestra; Koch-Schütz-Studer & Basel Sinfonietta ( Peter Rundel ) @ Lucerne Festival CH, August 16, 2002
  • 2013 Princes 'Balls' , for nonet (fl, cl, vn, vc, pno, perc, cbfl, cbs tuba); Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble & KONTRA-Trio @ Center for Contemporary Music Vinsavod, Moscow RU, October 7, 2013
  • 2014 Towards Capillary Attraction , for Tentett (fl, ob, cl, bn, hn, 2vn, va, vc, cb); Ensemble Montaigne (Andreas Brenner) @ Neubad Luzern CH, October 5, 2014
  • 2014 Macula Matris , for 7 dancers, 7 speakers and 7 musicians (fl, cl, bn, trb, vc, harp, perc); Ensemble Phoenix Basel (director: Jürg Henneberger), TIP Bewegungs-art-freiburg (choreography: Angelika Aechter), speakers SRF (director: Ernst Süss) @ Neubad Luzern CH, September 4, 2015
  • 2017 Rusty Engines Resume , for sextet (fl, cl, vn, vc, perc, pno); Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble & Thomas KJ Mejer @ Arkhangelsk Philharmonics, Arkhangelsk RUS, November 2, 2017

Awards (selection)

  • 1998 and 1993 contribution from the city and canton of Lucerne
  • 2003 Artist residency in Chicago
  • 2017 studio grant from the Landis & Gyr Foundation in Budapest

Literature (selection)

  • The compositions by Thomas KJ Mejer are published by SME, Schweizerische Musikedition, Lucerne
  • CD recordings have been released on labels such as Leo Records , Mode Records, Tzadik and earup.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Willisau Jazz Archive web portal
personal data
SURNAME Mejer, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mejer, Thomas Kurt Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne