Wolf Mayer

Wolfgang "Wolf" Mayer (* 15. March 1956 in Speyer ) is a German pianist of modern jazz and university lecturer (professor) at the University of Music Saar .

Live and act

Mayer had been taking piano lessons since he was eight. He studied school music at the Karlsruhe University of Music from 1975 to 1980 before completing a jazz course at the Berklee College of Music from 1981 ; he also took lessons from Hal Galper and Joanne Brackeen . Since the early 1980s he has performed internationally with his own trios and in the mid-1980s also worked for Bill Ramsey and for Circus Roncalli . For many years he was a member of Rainer Pusch's band . From 1987 he performed with Özay Fecht , in 1988 he toured the Middle East with Louis Sclavis and performed with Biréli Lagrène at the Mulhouse Jazz Festival . In the next few years he worked on the one hand with Gerhard Zwerenz and Elisabeth Alexander in jazz and poetry productions, on the other hand with Lydie Auvray and from 1990 to 1992 also with Gabriele Hasler . With Hugo Read and Stephan Schmolck he founded the group "Dialects", which performed at Jazz East-West , among others . He also worked in the bands of Matthias Stich and Jens Bunge and accompanied Anton Le Goff .

Mayer was a lecturer at the Mannheim University of Music from 1985 to 1995 and taught piano, composition and improvisation at the Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Education from 1995 to 2005 . In October 2005 he was appointed professor for practical piano playing at the Saar University of Music . As a composer he also wrote for the stage; his multi-movement work "Inner Voices" for alto saxophone and piano was premiered in 1992 at the third Tonkünstlerfest Baden-Württemberg.

On February 26, 2010, Mayer received the Saarland State Prize for University Teaching 2009 for the project "ENSUITE - an evening of school music".

On November 16, 2011, Wolfgang Mayer was elected Rector of the University of Music by an overwhelming majority by the expanded Senate of the Saar University of Music and took over this position on April 1, 2012.

Discographic notes

• Dialects: Windows (1991)
• I Do Belive In Spring (1998)
• Dialects: Roots and Wings (2001)

Lexigraphic entries

• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .
• Jürgen Wölfer : Jazz in Germany. The encyclopedia. All musicians and record companies from 1920 until today. Hannibal, Höfen 2008, ISBN 978-3-85445-274-4 .

Web links

• Works by and about Wolf Mayer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wolf Mayer - Saar University of Music
• Wolf Mayer's website