Silke Eberhard

Saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Silke Eberhard has been shaping the Berlin jazz scene for many years and has also attracted international attention with performances on all continents (except Antarctica!). She was awarded the Berlin Jazz Prize in 2020 and her ensemble Potsa Lotsa XL received the German Jazz Prize as ‘Large Ensemble of the Year’ in 2023.

She works with many musicians in a wide variety of formations; she founded the Silke Eberhard Trio with bassist Jan Roder and drummer Kay Lübke in 2006, and her wind quartet Potsa Lotsa has developed into a tentet - Potsa Lotsa XL.

She is part of collective ensembles such as I Am Three, Matsch & Schnee, Satchi and has worked with numerous musicians and ensembles on the international scene such as Henry Threadgill & Zooid, Aki Takase, David Liebman, Vinko Globokar, Gerry Hemingway, Uwe Oberg, Sandy Evans, LUX:NM, Matthew Herbert, Wayne Horvitz, Mike Reed, Dave Burrell, Karl Berger, Michael Zerang, Maggie Nicols, Joe Morris, Michael Formanek, Talibam! (Matt Mottel & Kevin Shea) and many more.

She composes for small and large ensembles, contemporary music and jazz. In her wide-ranging work as a performer, she also focuses on improvised encounters with dance, theatre and visual arts.

Her work is documented on more than 50 albums (CDs/LPs) on labels such as Intakt, Leo Records, ESP-Disk, Jazzwerkstatt, Not Two, Intuition, Trouble in the East, Rufus, fixcel.

‘Her mastery of both instruments is impressive, but so is her take on music: it is fun, it is light-footed, rhythmically and structurally complex, emotional and technically superb.’ (Stef Gijssels)