Michael Wollny

Michael Wollny is a German jazz pianist known best for performances and recordings with the Michael Wollny Trio, whose style according to a 2015 review in the Irish Times "is suffused with a theatrical, romantic air of mystery". Commenting on the Trio's 'Nachfahrten' EP, the newspaper said the pianist "doesn't so much burn as smoulder". Named at the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Awards in London as the Most Promising International Newcomer of the Year for 2007, he composes and features works by others including Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk, Billy Strayhorn and Björk. Born in central Germany, he studied piano and violin at the local Musikschule Schweinfurt and then at the Hermann Zilcher Conservatory and Hochshchule für Musik in nearby Würzburg. He recorded with the group Young Friends and from 1999 performed regularly at the Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Nationaltheater Mannheim. After he signed a recording contract with the ACT Music + Vision label in 2005, he released several albums with his trio with a 2007 solo album 'Piano Works VII - Hexentanz'. He teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig and in 2018 he commenced a tour of venues in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium with French jazz accordionist Vincent Peirani, with whom he released the 2016 album 'Tandem'. Peirani also appears with Wollny along with French saxophonist Emile Parisien and Swiss vocalist Andreas Schaerer on 'Out of Land' (2017) and Wollny performs with Finnish jazz pianist Iiro Rantala and Polish jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer on 'Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic VII - Piano Night'.

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