Chamber concert Studio14

Since the 1970s, Uschi Brüning, born in Leipzig on March 4, 1947, has been considered the leading jazz singer in eastern Germany. With the song “Dein Name,” she successfully gained a foothold in the pop song business in 1972. To this day, her sphere of activity ranges from literary chansons to blues, gospel, swing standards and improvisation in modern jazz.

Uschi Brüning’s way of singing and her voice turn simple compositions into great songs. Songs with durability and the claim to be heard again and again.

Now Uschi Brüning has written her autobiography.  At the urgent suggestion of Manfred Krug and with the support of Krista Maria Schädlich, she has put her life story between two book covers, facing the past and the stories of her life.

Ulrich Plenzdorf created a literary monument to the young Uschi Brüning as early as 1973. In “Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.” (The New Sorrows of Young W.), a cult book not only for GDR youth, Plenzdorf has the novel’s hero Edgar Wibeau rave: “When the woman started, I always broke. I don’t think she’s any worse than Ella Fitzgerald or one. She could have had anything from me, standing there in front with her big glasses and slowly singing her way into the troupe …”

Uschi Brüning sang soul with Klaus Lenz, chansons with Günther Fischer, she met Manfred Krug, whom she now calls her “idol” and with whom she had a long artistic friendship. In 2014, Manfred Krug and Uschi Brüning recorded the album “Auserwählt”. In addition to the immense chart success that the album had, it was also awarded the “Jazz Award”. A joint tour followed, until a last joint concert in Storkow in 2016.

Uschi Brüning’s artistic career was influenced not least by her husband, the saxophonist Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky. Uschi and Luten met back in 1971 when she was singing with Klaus Lenz. For more than four decades, the two have been a couple both privately and artistically and, until recently, were often on stage together. With Luten, she devoted herself intensively to improvised music, free jazz.

Many new projects have currently been added. The jazz icon sings with changing partners and increasingly inspires a younger audience.

With pianist and arranger Stephan König, she performs “Herzenslieder,” songs that have stayed with them for years. With Susanne Betancor, she brings jazz standards by Monk, Miles Davis, Annie Ross and others to the stage in a new way. And of course she is also part of the tribute tour “Manfred Krug – his songs” together with Krug’s daughter Fanny, his old band and other artists and companions. Currently, readings are taking place with Uschi Brüning, in which she reads from her book “So wie ich” – and also sings. She is accompanied musically by the young musician and composer Lukas Natschinski.

Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1984, Simone Gruppe received her first trumpet lessons at the age of 9 at the Frankfurt Youth Music School with Sunhild Pfeiffer. After graduating from high school, she first studied with Prof. Klaus Schuhwerk, Heiko Hermann and Balázs Nemes at the Frankfurt University of Music and with Prof. Sepp Eidenberger at the Bruckner University in Linz/Austria. She then moved to the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe to study with Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, where she completed her master’s degree with distinction.

She gained orchestral experience in the European Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, among others. After internships with the orchestra of the National Theater Mannheim and the Stuttgart Philharmonic, she has been a member of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2010.

Anne Mentzen was born in Braunschweig in 1981, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five. At the age of nine she began horn lessons and from 1998 was trained by Theodor Wiemes, principal horn of the Radiophilharmonie Hannover. After graduating from high school, she began studying horn in the fall of 2000 in the class of Marie-Luise Neunecker at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. From 2003 she studied with Thomas Hauschild at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, where she graduated with honors. Anne Mentzen won several federal prizes at “Jugend musiziert” as well as prizes at other competitions, both with the horn and on the piano. In 1999, in addition to the first national prize, she was awarded a special prize by the Hanover Artists’ Association and in 2000 she was also awarded the Lower Saxony Prize for “outstanding achievements in the cultural field”. She has also received scholarships from the Volkswagen Bank (1999), the Richard Wagner Association (2000), and the Gustav Mahler Academy (2002, 2005). The hornist gained orchestral experience in the state and national youth orchestras, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and was invited several times to the International Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. After an internship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a temporary position with the Staatsorchester Kassel, she went to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as an intern in 2005. Since 2006 Anne Mentzen has been a horn player with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Here she plays in various chamber music formations, such as the ensemble “Samtblech”.

Hannes Hölzl was born in 1987 in Bad Hofgastein, Austria (province of Salzburg). After his musical education started with playing the recorder, he switched to the tenor horn at the age of 5. At the age of 10, he additionally received trombone lessons from Goldegg music school teacher Gernot Pracher. Later he studied at the renowned university “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Prof. Dany Bonvin.

In the years 1998 to 2000 Hannes Hölzl passed the performance badges of the Austrian Brass Band Association in bronze, silver and gold, all with “excellent success”. Furthermore, he was successful in numerous international competitions: starting as winner of the competition “Prima la musica”, receiving the 2nd prize in Cordoba, Argentina as well as the 1st prize at the “European Solo Champion” in Montreux, the 4th prize at the International Brass Competition in Markneukirchen-Germany, the 4th prize at the “Città” competition in Italy, the 2nd Prize at the “Prague Spring”(1st Prize was not awarded), where he also received the “Gustav Mahler Prize” as the youngest finalist of the whole competition and the “Prize of the City of Prague” as the most successful finalist of the trombone competition. He was also awarded the 2nd prize at the International Trombone Competition in Budapest, also he received the Promotional Prize of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Hannes Hölzl is a member of various brass ensembles and performs as a soloist with different brass and symphony orchestras at home and abroad, including China, America, Tunisia, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Germany….

At the age of 18 Hannes Hölzl began his career in the great symphony orchestra with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. In the same year he won a 2 year internship with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. During this time Hannes Hölzl gained his first permanent position at the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, which he took up at the age of 21 as solo trombonist. Since 2012 he is now solo trombonist of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin.