Prof. Achim Kaufmann

Achim Kaufmann has been active on the scene as a pianist and composer since the late 1980s. Among his most long-term projects are the piano trio grünen with Christian Lillinger and Robert Landfermann, the electro-acoustic septet SKEIN, a duo with the Amsterdam-based clarinetist and saxophonist Michael Moore, and the improvising trio Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode. Together with the visual artist and poet Gabriele DR Guenther, he instigated and produced the multidisciplinary Trokaan Project which combines aspects of instantly composed chamber music, poems and text fragments as well as electro-acoustic textures.  

Kaufmann can also be heard in duo settings such as with Ignaz Schick, Yorgos Dimitriadis and Kalle Kalima, and in various improvising trios (Nick Dunston and Mariá Portugal; Anna Kaluza and Jan Roder; Liz Kosack and Christian Marien). He was or is a member of such stylistically diverse groups as Christian Lillinger‘s Grund, Common Ground, Dejan Terzic’s Melanoia, Efrat Alony’s Händel - Fast Forward, and Sestetto Internazionale.

Furthermore, he played with Han Bennink, George Lewis, Jim Black, Chris Speed, Andrea Parkins, Paul Lovens, Mark Dresser, Tomasz Stańko, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, Tony Buck, Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky, Shelley Hirsch, Okkyung Lee, Tristan Honsinger, Axel Dörner, Steve Swallow, Al Foster, Adam Nussbaum and many other musicians of renown.

His music has been documented on 90 recordings to date, of which three are solo discs. He has participated in concerts and tours all over the world. In 2001, he was awarded the SWR jazz prize, and the Albert  Mangelsdorff award in 2015. In addition to his work as a pianist and composer, he is occasionally also active as a curator and author, as well as playing live electronics and drums. He has had a professorship for jazz piano and ensemble at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar since 2018. Achim Kaufmann lives in Berlin.

“For many years, Achim Kaufmann has been one of the most inspiring and exciting personalities of the European jazz and improvisation scene. His music bears witness to great harmonic subtlety and structural depth. A brilliant pianist and composer, his reflected exploration of tradition has led him to a nuanced, contemporary sound language that encompasses poetry, energy and abstraction in equal measure.”                  Julia Neupert, SWR radio

To the discography: http://www.achimkaufmann.com/recordings.html