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Franzi Aller plays double bass and electric bass. In recent years, she has played in a wide variety of formations - from the jazz quartet with Tony Lakatos to the experimental indie jazz-rock band Conic Rose and orchestral formations. She completed her A-levels in guitar at the Landesmusikgymnasium Montabaur. She then studied at the Mainz University of Music, including composition with Jesse Milliner. She has been a member of the Stegreif Orchestra since 2019 and has performed in various line-ups in numerous studio productions and concerts, both as a bassist and as a composer and arranger of her own works.
Ulf Kleiner has been playing the piano since he could think and walk. Growing up in the Wagner city of Bayreuth, he had his father's jazz record collection at his side as an alternative guide. After studying at the University of Mainz, he remained loyal to the HFM and the city - now himself a lecturer in jazz piano. He plays with Fola Dada, DePhazz, Joo Kraus and works with Jeff Cascaro, HR Bigband, Charlie Nariano, Ian Pooley and many others.
He is the producer of various albums, currently the albums by Fola Dada and Caro Trischler, both of which will be released in 2025. Ulf Kleiner's first piano album ‘PIANOSKOP’ was released in March 2020.
Thomas Sauerborn is a Cologne-based drummer, composer and bandleader, as well as a lecturer in jazz percussion at the Hochschule für Musik in Mainz. He studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA), the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne (HfMT) and the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium (RMC) in Copenhagen. His artistic work combines a deep passion for improvisation with the exploration of new sound worlds, for example in his first solo album [zimbel] (2024), which he presented at the Cologne Jazzweek 2024. In addition to his debut album KYIWI (2021), he is co-founder of the Anunaki Tabla label and active in projects such as Das Ende der Liebe, Mount Meander and Trio Pollon. Sauerborn is an integral part of the German jazz and improvisation scene and has performed all over the world.
Alexander Gelhausen studied music and art education at the University of Cologne and jazz singing at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. He has been teaching at the Mainz University of Music since 2001 and has been head of the vocal department in the jazz and popular music department since 2010. In 2020, he was awarded the honorary title of ‘Associate Professor’ by the President of Johannes Gutenberg University in recognition of his achievements.
Alexander Gelhausen has been singing for many years in various formations from duos to quartets, big bands and the WDR radio orchestra. He also works as a speaker, gives workshops and lectures on topics such as voice training, vocal expression, vocal vibrato techniques, rhythm training and vocal improvisation, including at the Landesmusikakademie Rheinland-Pfalz.
Claudius Valk studied classical and jazz saxophone at the Cologne Academy of Music with Hugo Read and Wolfgang Engstfeld and jazz music at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen with Matthias Nadolny. In 1994 he was awarded the Folkwang Prize for Music.
From 1994 to 1999 he was a member of the Belgian saxophone quartet Blindmann. Since 1995 he has also led the Valktrio (with bassist Werner Lauscher and drummer Marc Lehan), whose first album was released in 1996. From 1996 to 1997 he spent time in New York, where he took lessons from Richie Beirach and Dave Liebman and performed with Chuck Clark, Ron Vincent and Loren Stillman, among others. During a tour of Cuba in 1997, he worked with Ramón Valle and Felipe Cabrera, among others. He has been a professor of jazz saxophone at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since 2017.
Maxine Troglauer
Classical, jazz, contemporary music - the Wiesbaden-born musician, who completed her master's degree at the bass trombone institution Dave Taylor in New York in 2021, knows no fear of contact with the most diverse genres. Troglauer is one of the very few musicians to have been a member of both the Bundesjugendorchester (BJO) and the Bundesjazzorchester (BuJazzO), Germany's two most important top young ensembles. The Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation 2022 prizewinner's portfolio is correspondingly diverse - it ranges from productions for NDR, BR, the Beethovenfest Bonn and the ECM jazz label to solo and chamber music concerts with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.       |
Landesmusikakademie
