“Basstalk” farewell
Jazz double bass professor Manfred Bründl talks about jazz and creativity
After 30 years of teaching at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, Manfred Bründl is retiring as professor of jazz double bass and electric bass. To mark the occasion, the SWR Jazz Prize winner will give one last public lecture on Thursday, February 12, at 6:00 p.m. in the jazz ensemble room 304 at the University Center am Horn. Admission to this “Basstalk” on the topic of jazz and creativity is free!
Through improvisation and interactive musical communication, jazz is created in the moment, unfolding artistic soundscapes and spaces that allow both the musicians and the audience to be part of a creative process and experience inspiration up close. The jazz bassist and long-time educator gave his lecture “Basstalk – Jazz & Creativity” at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena in 2024 at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Miriam Rose.
In his lecture, Manfred Bründl addresses questions about the process and implementation of creativity in connection with inspiration and artistic creation in music. He refers to the individual influences and perceptions of the musician that influence the creative process and highlights educational concepts in learning creativity and inspiration. Using a variety of examples from his work with students, as a coach for numerous national and international workshops, and from his concert activities, Bründl explains the diverse approach to creativity as a unique selling point and concept of artistic expression.
The focus is less on scientific findings and more on Bründl's own artistic creative process. Following the lecture, participants will have the opportunity to engage in conversation with Prof. Manfred Bründl.
Manfred Bründl studied classical and jazz music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Since 1987, he has led his own groups, whose music can be heard on various CDs. He has played with internationally renowned artists such as Albert Mangelsdorff, Tomasz Stanko, Heinz Sauer, Leo Wright, Herb Ellis, Martial Solal, Norma Winstone, Charlie Mariano, and Craig Harris. On behalf of the Goethe-Institut and the German Foreign Office, he has toured Africa, Asia, Canada, Latin America, and most recently Georgia with the German-Georgian project “Alaverdi.”
He received the Jazz Prize of the City of Frankfurt/M. and the SWR Jazz Prize. In 2021, he founded the German-Syrian ensemble “Sadaqa,” which successfully performed at the German National Theater in Weimar and at the Rudolstadt Festival. In 2023, his Suite VII for jazz quartet and orchestra (with the Staatskapelle Weimar) premiered. With “Nietzsche On Air – Quasthoff live,” he brought a Nietzsche program he initiated with opera star Thomas Quasthoff to the stage at the Sendehalle Weimar.
Manfred Bründl is the initiator and artistic director of the world's first transcultural jazz prize, the “ACHAVA Jazz Award,” and has been the artistic director of the International Jazz Mile Workshop since 1999. He has been teaching as a professor at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar since 1996.
[10 February 2026]