Edgar Knecht Quintett present FOLKSONGS UNITED in Kassel on July 9th 2023

Special concert announcement: PREMIERE – Kassel keyboard wizard Edgar Knecht and his quintet present their brand new European project FOLKSONGS UNITED on Sunday, July 9th, 2023, at 7:30 PM at the STAATSTHEATER KASSEL // OPERNHAUS

Edgar Knecht has long earned a distinctive place in the international jazz spectrum for the way he combines jazz and world music with classical compositional technique. He and his trio are celebrated worldwide for their unique folk song arrangements. The albums of his trilogy around German folk songs are considered by the critics as “aesthetically most beautiful and musically most enchanting jazz albums of the last years”, made it into the German jazz charts and into various lists of the “Best albums of the year”. The NDR puts it in a nutshell: “A unique symbiosis of classical music, jazz and German folk song that has no equal.” Edgar Knecht has proven in legendary encounter concerts, for example with Jean-Louis Matinier, Aeham Ahmad, Frederik Köster or Dave Cooper, that he can think outside the box of his home country. His new project COLORS OF EUROPE is a declaration of love to the cultural diversity of Europe. Beautiful old folk songs from France, Austria, Italy, Spain and Germany are transformed by Knecht in his unique manner into moving and rhythmically rousing compositions. In the process, the Edgar Knecht Trio meets wonderful top-class jazz musicians from Europe.
At the Kassel Opernhaus, the Edgar Knecht Trio will meet Christoph Pepe Auer, one of the most exciting Austrian bass clarinetists. He has played in the Jazz Big Band Graz, the Vienna Art Orchestra or in a duo with Manu Delago, among others, and is currently on the road with his own quartet. And because, in addition, Frederik Köster, one of Germany’s leading jazz trumpeters, will enrich the evening at the opera house with his radiant solos, Edgar Knecht will be performing in a quintet for the first time at the Opernhaus Kassel.

You can get your tickets here.

Edgar Knecht (Kassel) – piano, composition
Christoph Pepe Auer (Vienna) – bass clarinet
Frederik Köster (Cologne) – trumpet
Rolf Denecke (Kassel) – double bass
Tobias Schulte (Kassel) – drums, percussion