BIOGRAPHY

  • “... serious, beautiful music from one of Europe's most original jazz musicians.”

    Chris Elcombe, BBC Late Junction Albums of the Year 2018

Composer and pianist Stefan Schultze is one of the most multifaceted and original musicians to come out of the German jazz scene. A Berliner by choice, Schultze studied piano and composition in Cologne and in New York. He occupies the interface between new music, improvisation and jazz with which he has most definitely created his own style. His artistic projects cover a spectrum of compositions for small and large ensembles, from leading larger ensemble formations, to initiating and producing cultural-political music projects on national and international stages.

Stefan Schultze has founded and led a number of award-winning ensembles and worked with many important musicians and orchestras such as Tom Rainey, Herb Robertson, the Metropole Orchestra and the WDR Big Band. In 2015, Deutschlandfunk produced his album with the Chinese sheng soloist Wu Wei, followed by “Ted The Bellhop” in 2017. With long-term cooperation partners such as the Goethe Institute and the German Foreign Office, he has completed concert tours and residencies worldwide.

Besides his great passion for collective sounds, Schultze has been giving increasing focus to a number of solo projects, such as “The Pulsepusher Suite” for prepared piano. In 2018 he published his first well-received solo debut album “System Tribe” (WhyPlayJazz).

Stefan Schultze is the director of the Master’s program for Music Composition Contemporary Jazz at Bern University of the Arts, Switzerland and he is leading various university orchestras, master classes and workshops.

 

PRIZES / AWARDS

2020 Basic funding Berlin Senate Stefan Schultze - Large Ensemble
2019 Travel Grant Berlin Senate Stefan Schultze - Large Ensemble Tour 2019
2019 Basic Funding Berlin Senate Stefan Schultze - Large Ensemble
2018 Basic funding Berlin Senate Stefan Schultze - Large Ensemble
2018 Project Funding Our Voices! - Our Voices! Choral Fantasy for 8 choirs and 8 loudspeakers
2017 Goethe-Institute Artist in Residence Japan / Tokyo
2017 Lower Saxony Composition Scholarship
2016 Berlin Senate Project Funding Ehwald Schultze Rainey
2015 Berlin Senate Tour Support Simon Rose Stefan Schultze Duo
2014 Goethe-Institute Artist in Residence Shanghai / China
2012 Berlin Senate Project Funding “Berlin Art Orchestra Invites ...”
2012 Goethe-Institute Artist in Residence South East Europe
2010 1st prize WDR Jazz Prize, category composition
2009 1st Prize International Composition Competition “ArtEZ Jazz Composition Contest”, Enschede / Netherlands
2008 Member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop
2008 1st Prize Lower Saxony Jazz Prize
2007 Honorary Prize of the ASCAP Foundation "Young Jazz Composers Award
2007 DAAD Scholarship
2006 Scholarship Jazz Composition, Manhattan School of Music in NY City
2006 Cologne Grammar School and Foundation Fund scholarship
2006 1st prize International Jazz Festival Granada “Best international Jazz Band”, Granada / Spain
2005 1st Prize International Jazz Festival Granada “Best Young Jazz Band”, Granada / Spain
2005 1st Prize Jazz on the Danube “New Generation”, Straubing
2004 Winning Jazz Hannover, Lower Saxony
2003 1st Prize International Jazz Prize Biberach
2003 Winning Jazz Hannover, Lower Saxony

WORKED WITH ENSEMBLES

WDR Bigband, Metropole Orchestra, Berlin Art Orchestra, Luzern Jazz Orchestra, Fette Hupe, Spielvereinigung Süd, Landesjugendchor NDS, Landesjugendjazzorchester NDS, Landesjugendjazzorchester Berlin, Landesjugendjazzorchester Hamburg, Millenium Orchestra Enschede

WORKED WITH ARTISTS

Akihito Obama, Almut Kühne, Benjamin Kraef, Benjamin Weidekamp, Christian Lillinger, Christoph Hillmann, Claudio Puntin, Claudius Valk, Cole Ingraham, Dag Magnus Narvesen, Daniel Schröteler, Devin Grey, Etienne Nillesen, Falk Grieffenhagen, Florian Menzel, Florian Ross, Florian Trübsbach, Florian Zwissler, Frank Gratkowski, Frank Möbus, Gebhard Ullmann, Heiner Wiberny, Herb Robertson, Hindol Deb, Hinrich Franck, Ignaz Schick, James Banner, Jan Roder, Jenny Q Chai, Joachim Ullrich, Johannes Lauer, John Schröder, John-Dennis Renken, Joss Turnbull, Jürgen Friedrich, Kalle Kalima, Linda Oh, Ludger Hennig, Marc Muellbauer, Martin Auer, Martin Lubenov, Mateusz Smoczynski, Matthias Muche, Matthias Schubert, Michael Schiefel, Miho Hazama, Nicola Hein, Nicolaus Neuser, Niels Klein, Nils Wogram, Nora Thiele, Norbert Scholly, Paulo Alvares, Peter Ehwald, Petter Eldh, Richard Scott, Rie Watanabe, Robert Landfermann, Roy Carroll, Ryuichi Yoshida, Sebastian Gille, Simon Rose, Simon Rummel, Tilman Ehrhorn, Tom Arthurs, Tom Rainey, Uli Kempendorff, Ute Wassermann, Werner Neumann, Willi Hanne, Winnie Brückner, Wu Wei.

CONCERTS

Finnland, Schweiz, Japan, Österreich, Italien, Polen, England, China, Hongkong, Holland, Spanien, Frankreich, Peru, Costa Rica, USA, Griechenland, Mazedonien, Bulgarien, Serbien, Kroatien, Mazedonien, Belgien, Luxemburg

FESTIVALS

Montreux Jazz Festival (Schweiz), Festival Internacional Jazz Perú (Lima, Peru), Venice Jazz, Trieste Jazz Festival, Belgrade Jazz Festival, Sofia Jazz Festival, Skopje Jazz Festival, Costa Rica International Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall (New York, USA), Luxembourg Blues’n Jazz Rallye

EDUCATION

2005 Diploma in Jazz Piano Music Education, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln
2006 Diploma in Jazz Piano, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln
2006 Diploma in Jazz Composition / Jazz Arrangement, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln
2008 Master of Music in Jazz Composition, Manhattan School of Music, New York
2008 BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop, New York

PROFESSORS

John Taylor, Michael Abene, Jim McNeely, Reiko Fueting, Joachim Ullrich, Paulo Álvares

© 2024  |  www.stefanschultze.com  |  All rights reserved.