Undiscovered worlds between classical music and jazz

She is one of the great up-and-coming talents of European jazz: pianist Johanna Summer has found her very own sound with improvisations on classical piano music. “Johanna Summer makes you dizzy with happiness with her music,” writes DIE ZEIT.

On the basis of classical piano works, she creates new worlds of sound and continues to tell them in her improvisations. Whether with classical pieces, original compositions or jazz standards – she always manages to develop a broad, dynamic narrative, sometimes tender and fragile, sometimes full of tension, rhythmically gripping or irresistibly melodic.

If you listen to Summer, you don’t have to be a certified jazz fan. In terms of sound material, this music is not only influenced by jazz and blues; its pieces often sound like classical music. The term “jazz” is therefore actually too narrow for this music. “Improvised music” would probably be the most accurate term. This jazz musician, who often dispenses with jazz colors, is met with enthusiasm by the audience, because her improvisations develop a unique undertow.

“Her music is full of imagination and without category. Coming from European classical music, with wonderful touch, she has created something perfect, her own. Beautiful music from A – Z. A new star in the piano sky,” raves piano icon Joachim Kühn.

Johanna Summer is known not only on European stages, she has also performed in the USA and Israel, among others. She has won several prizes at the national competitions Jugend musiziert and Jugend jazzt. With her trio, she was among the finalists at the 2018 Biberach Jazz Prize; in the same year, she became the first solo artist ever to win the “Young Munich Jazz Prize.” In 2019 she won the 2nd prize of the EASTplugged Junior Award and in Osnabrück the soloist prize of the Young German Jazz Award. In 2022, it will receive the Jazz Pott in Essen.

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Sound sample resonances