Impro-Session 5.6.2025 Musikhochschule Mannheim Kammermusiksaal 

Prof.Sidney Corbett-E-Gitarre 
Jan Gerdes- Klavier
Erik Drescher- Flöte

Impro-Session Gerdes/Corbett/Drescher 5.6.2025 Musikhochschule Mannheim

The pianist Jan Gerdes is one of the most interesting and versatile musicians of his generation. As a pianist between tradition and the avant-garde he is a master of both the classical–romantic and contemporary repertoire. 

Jan Gerdes studied piano at the colleges of music in Hannover, Detmold and Essen with Kurt Bauer, Nerine Barett and Renate Kretschmar-Fischer, and took master classes with famous pianists such as Anatol Ugorski, Halina Czerny-Stefanska and Edith Picht-Axenfeld. 

Concerts all over the world have taken this award-winning musician to countries in Europe, South America and the Far East. He has given guest performances at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Maerzmusik Berlin, Rotterdam Gaudeamus Week, Festival Chiffren, Festival Ultraschall Berlin, Musica Viva Straßburg, Stockhausen Courses, Centre Acanthes Metz, Bregenzer Festspiele, Haller Bachtage, Kunstfest Weimar, Beethovenfest Bonn, WDR Musikfest, Weingartener Tage Neuer Musik, Darmstadt Summer Courses and elsewhere, and he has appeared in concert halls such as the Berliner Konzerthaus, the Kölner Philharmonie, Opera de Paris, Essener Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Wien, Freiburger Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Berliner Philharmonie. 

He has made television, radio and CD recordings for NDR, WDR, MDR, HR, RB, ORF, Deutschland Radio Berlin and the Label Ambitus. His solo CD Gelände/Zeichnung with very recent piano music was released in 2008 by Label Zeitklang. Jan Gerdes has worked with a number of leading contemporary composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm and Peter Ruzicka, and has given first performances of works by Sidney Corbett, Peter Gahn, Brice Pauset, Moritz Eggert, Alex Nowitz, Marcus Antonius Wesselmann and many others. 

As a traveller between the worlds of classical and new music, electronica and performance, in 2004 he founded the composing and improvising duo EROL, which explores the interface between piano music and electronic club culture. Since 2018 he works on his  electroacoustic project `rand` with Berlin based techno producer Frank Bogdanowitz aka Dr.Nojoke. Their debut album „ Peripherie“ was released in 2022. 

The music-theatre platform solosymphonie-productions, a joint venture with actor Michael Fuchs, develops innovative programs and interdisciplinary projects that juxtapose traditional and modern elements in music, theatre, literature, visual art and dance in a dramaturgy that turns them into a sensory experience. Their successful production 4.48 Psychose, a confrontation of the play by Sarah Kane with contemporary notated and improvised music, was premiered at the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

Jan Gerdes is also working as a composer, as his piano solo project „ Songs and Improvisations“ presents own compositions and improvisations confronting the worlds of classical, contemporary and jazz music. His latest Solo album " Songs and Improvisations" will be released dec 2023 with label XJAZZMUSIC.

Jan Gerdes currently lives in Berlin and is a lecturer for piano and contemporary music at the University of Potsdam. He was teaching contemporary piano at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik Mannheim and he hold master classes at the Mozarteum Salzburg and at the University of Liverpool. 


Contact:
+49 (0) 30 288 616 22
+49 173 200 56 22 
Paul-Robeson-Str. 50
10439 Berlin - Germany

jan@jan-gerdes.de 
www.jan-gerdes.de

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