Hannes Zerbe (born 17 December 1941) is a German jazz composer and pianist.

Life

Zerbe was born in Litzmannstadt. After studying electrical engineering, he studied piano and

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

at the

Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German language, German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions ...

and the

Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber The Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber (Carl Maria von Weber College of Music; also/formerly known as Dresden Conservatory or Dresden Royal Conservatory) is a university of music in Dresden, Germany. History The Hochschule opened ...

. He has been a professional musician since 1969. From 1985 to 1987, he was a master student for composition with

Paul-Heinz Dittrich Paul-Heinz Dittrich (4 December 1930 – 28 December 2020) was a German composer and academic teacher. Based in East Berlin, he focused on chamber music, with many works inspired by poetry. His works were performed earlier in the West than in the ...

at the

Akademie der Künste der DDR The Akademie der Künste der DDR was the central art academy of the German Democratic Republic (DDR). It existed under different names from 1950 to 1993. Then it merged with the "Akademie der Künste Berlin (West)" to become the Academy of Arts, ...

. Zerbe has organised and led international workshops and tours in the fields of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

improvised music Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous ...

since the late 1970s. Zerbe was a member of the group ''

FEZ Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

'' (with

Conny Bauer Konrad "Conny" Bauer (born 4 July 1943) is a German free jazz trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Johannes Bauer. As a student at senior high school in Sonneberg between 1957 and 1961, he was enthusiastic about modern music and danc ...

Christoph Niemann Christoph Niemann (born 1970) is an illustrator, graphic designer, and children's book author. Since July 2008, Niemann has been writing and illustrating ''The New York Times'' blog Abstract City, renamed Abstract Sunday in 2011, when the blog ...

and Peter Gröning) and the quintet ''Osiris'' (by with , and ). In 1979, he founded his large-scale "Hannes Zerbe Blech Band" with which compositions by

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

were also performed. From 1980, he also played in a duo with the

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

player

Dietrich Unkrodt Dietrich Unkrodt (25 August 1934 – 26 June 2006) was a German tubist and double bass player. He was employed at the Meiningen Theatre and moved to the Komische Oper Berlin in 1960, where he remained until 2000. Life Born in Prudnik, Unkrod ...

, and from 1995 in a duo with the clarinettist . Furthermore, Zerbe was involved in text-music projects with actors, directors and singers (for example

Lauren Newton Lauren Amber Newton (born 16 November 1952) is an avant-garde jazz and Contemporary classical music, contemporary classical singer and founding member of the Vienna Art Orchestra. Biography Newton earned a degree in music at the University of O ...

), including

Bert Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, pain ...

and

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

. He has worked with other contemporary jazz musicians (including

Willem Breuker Willem Breuker (4 November 1944 – 23 July 2010) was a Dutch bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and clarinetist. Career During the mid 1960s, he played with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, co-founding the Insta ...

, , ),

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist who focused on the alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biography Mariano was born in ...

, Toto Blanke, ,

Klaus Koch Klaus Koch (October 4, 1926 – March 28, 2019) was an Old Testament scholar. Koch first studied in the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and later at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He did his doctoral dissertation at the Ruprec ...

and

Gebhard Ullmann Gebhard Ullmann (born November 2, 1957) is a German jazz musician and composer. Career At the age of six, Ullmann started to play the recorder and later classical flute. Since 1976 he studied a.o. with Herb Geller and Dave Liebman and at ...

. Since 1996, he has led the Berlin "Jazzorchester Prokopätz", which performs compositions by Eisler, Weill, Breuker and Zerbe in

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

format. Experiences with this workshop line-up flowed into the "Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchester", founded in 2011. In a duo with the saxophonist Dirk Engelhardt, he also improvises on poems by

Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951. Biography and work Family and beginnings Go ...

. Among other works, Zerbe wrote a ''Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra'' and ''Reflections on Eisler's Winter Battle Suite.'' He also composed for film. Zerbe is also involved in political contexts. With his ensemble and with the actor

Rolf Becker Rolf Becker (born 31 March 1935) is a German television actor and political activist. By his first wife, actress Monika Hansen, he is the father of actor Ben Becker, and actress and singer Meret Becker. Selected filmography * ''Widower with Five ...

in the cultural programme of the Rosa Luxemburg Conference of the left-wing daily newspaper ''

junge Welt ''Junge Welt'' (English: ''Young World'', stylized in its logo as ''junge Welt'') is a German daily newspaper, published in Berlin. The jW describes itself as a left-wing and Marxist newspaper. German authorities categorize it as a far-left medi ...

'', he arranged the performance of ''

Das Floß der Medusa ' (''The Raft of the Medusa'') is a secular oratorio by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. It is regarded as a seminal work in the composer's alignment with left-wing politics. Background Henze wrote it as a Requiem for Che Guevara, and set i ...

– Requiem für

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...

'' by

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as t ...

Recordings

* ''Blech Band'' (Amiga 1984) * ''Rondo a la Fried'' (BVHaast 1992) * ''Ochsenkarren'' with Unkrodt and the (1994) * Brecht: ''Alles wandelt sich'' with Gina Pietsch (vocals) and Jürgen Kupke (clarinet) (1991) * ''Jazzorchester Prokopätz'' (2005) *

Peter Hacks Peter Hacks (21 March 1928 – 28 August 2003) was a German playwright, author, and essayist. Hacks was born in Breslau (Wrocław), Lower Silesia. Displaced by World War II, Hacks settled in Munich in 1947, where he made acquaintance with T ...

: ''Was träumt der Teufel'' with Gina Pietsch (Ohreule 2009) * Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchester ''Eisleriana'' (2011 ) * Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchester ''Erlkönig'' (2013 JazzHausMusik) * Hannes Zerbe/Jazz Orchestra Berlin: ''Kalkutta'' (2017 JazzHausMusik)

Radio play music

* 1992: : ''König und Besenbinder'' – direction: Peter Groeger (Kinderhörspiel – DS Kultur)

References

External links

*
Homepage von 'Prokopätz'
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zerbe, Hannes 20th-century classical composers German jazz composers German jazz pianists 1941 births Living people People from Łódź 20th-century jazz composers

Life

Recordings

Radio play music

Further reading

References

External links