Michael Wollny

Even the critics love Michael Wollny. The pianist, who has lived in Leipzig since 2014, has won almost every major jazz award in Germany, and his latest trio album has been compared to the Keith Jarrett Trio at its peak. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that Wollny proves time and again that he can "turn any conceivable music into an experience that takes your breath away." His albums even regularly make it into the German pop charts. His solo concerts in particular are like an exuberant wonder tute: sometimes sensitive and lyrical, sometimes enigmatic and effervescent like a ride through the soul of black romanticism. No one says it better than Michael Wollny himself in an interview a few years ago: "As a musician, you go on stage and always start from scratch. That's why expectations, prejudices, wishes, previous stories don't play any role at all in this respect. Everything happens right now, in this moment. The first note that is played completely fills the consciousness, to follow it, to see where it goes, where the melody and energy arc end up ..." Open end.

The concert will be followed by an artist talk on the festival theme of Knowing.
The conversation will be led by Maxi Broecking.