Woodwind Player of the Year
Peter Ehwald Wins the 2026 German Jazz Prize
Musician Peter Ehwald has been awarded the 2026 German Jazz Prize in the woodwind category. The Berlin-based saxophonist has been teaching jazz saxophone, jazz clarinet, and improvisation for many years at the Department of New Music and Jazz at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar.
“I accepted the award in person in Bremen with great joy and surprise,” says Peter Ehwald, who did not have to apply for this honor: It was based on an independent jury decision. The jazz musician has a lot planned until the end of the year: He is planning a variety of concerts with the percussion ensemble ~su in preparation for a CD release in September 2026. Ehwald will also be performing live with this ensemble on October 16 in Arnstadt—with a new program.
Ehwald is also planning further performances with his “Trio Schultze Ehwald Rainey”: “I’ll be playing concerts with them in September and then recording a new CD as well. I’m also working on a quartet program that will be recorded this fall,” says the award-winning musician.
The compositional ideas of Berlin-based saxophonist Peter Ehwald are always paired with unbridled joy of playing and spontaneity. Peter Ehwald’s music has appeared on over 30 releases. He has worked with musicians such as Tom Rainey, Anna Webber, Keisuke Matsuno, Lisa Bassenge, Diego Pinera, Laura Robles, Dan Weiss, Kathrin Pechlof, Almut Kühne, Eivind Aarset, Saadet Türköz, Stefan Schultze, Rhani Krija, Kim Bo-Sung, Dan Weiss, Rudi Mahall, Claudio Puntin, Gunter Hampel, Nils Wogram, John Schröder, Matthias Akeo Nowak, Jon Scott, Samuel Rohrer, Jonas Burgwinkel, Robert Landfermann, Tomasz Dąbrowski, and Simon Jermyn.
Peter Ehwald works continuously with long-standing bands, and he is fascinated by unusual lineups and timbres. With his band “Double Trouble” (two double basses, saxophone, and drums), he has presented his music worldwide. His bass-less trio with pianist Stefan Schultze and New York drummer Tom Rainey has been enthusiastically received by the press and jazz audiences. He works regularly with percussionist Laura Robles and drummer Diego Pinera.
He has composed over 20 radio play scores for Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio, RBB, HR, and NDR. His work for the septet “Septuor de Grand Matin” oscillates between the blues of jazz’s “the Wee Hours of the Morning” and Schoenberg’s compositional principle of developing variation. On the CD “Tauchen” by Peter Ehwald and the Percussion Ensemble ~su, released in South Korea, Ehwald’s compositions—this time drawing on classical Korean musical practice—approach the contemporary sound idiom.
As a sought-after instrumentalist, concert tours—often supported by the Goethe-Institut—take him to the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Poland, Spain, Finland, the United States, Peru, and Mexico. Peter Ehwald is the artistic director of the “Come Closer” concert series at the “Other Music Academy” and the “Come Closer” Jazz Festival in Weimar.
[May 5, 2026]