Uwe Steinmetz
Saxophonist and composer Uwe Steinmetz was born in Bremervörde, a town in northern Germany, in 1975. His musical influences came mainly from the teachers he studied and performed with during his school years in Berlin, Bern, Madras and Boston as a scholarship winner of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation: John Surman, John Ruocco, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bob Mintzer, Michael Brecker, David Liebman, George Russell, Jerry Bergonzi and Cecil McBee among many others. He has performed his own music on four continents and in more than thirty countries and has received national and international awards for his artistic work, including the a double price as a soloist and band leader at the European Jazz Competition in Spain in 2001. He has released 12 CDs with his own music and has appeared on numerous jazz CDs as a solist.
Mr. Steinmetz’s compositions include works for choir, organ and chamber ensembles, string quartet and jazz orchestra. Since 2002 he has worked with the London-based Fitzwilliam String Quartet, who premiered three of his works. In his compositional work he often deals with biblical or theological themes and has appeared on panels, in books and television documentaries about improvised music, church music and theology. His latest premiered works included commissions for a jazz cantata for 3000 singers and Eric Ericsons Kammerkor from Stockholm, an oratorio based on Milton's Paradise lost and two suites of sacred jazz, Cherubicon and The Heart of the Rose. As an educator, he has been giving Master Classes in many countries and is currently an associate professor for Saxophone and Improvisation at the Conservatory of Rostock at the Baltic Sea. He is co-founder of the network of Christian jazz musicians, Crescendo Jazz, and was granted he was granted a research position at the German Liturgical Institute at the University of Leipzig and the Academy of Gothenburg in 2015 to study the relationship between Liturgy and Jazz Improvisation.
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Uwe Steinmetz wurde 1975 in Bremervörde/NDS geboren und studierte Saxophon und Musiktheorie in Berlin, Bern, Indien und Boston. Wesentliche Einflüsse waren das Studium mit den Komponisten George Russell und den Saxophonisten Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Maneri, John Surman, Roscoe Mitchell, Bennie Golson, Michael Brecker und David Liebman, sowie Konzertreisen mit dem Bundesjugendjazzorchester unter der Leitung von Peter Herbolzheimer.
Er arbeitet als Komponist, Saxophonist und Dozent über das Europäische Umland hinaus in Indien, Äthiopien, Brasilien, Korea und den USA, war Stipendiat der Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes und erhielt nationale und internationale Auszeichnungen für seine künstlerische Arbeit, u.a. den Theodor Fontane Preis 2000 vom Stiftungsverband der Deutschen Wissenschaft, und den Solisten- und Studiopreis beim Europäischen Jazzwettbewerb in Getxo 2001.
Uwe Steinmetz veröffentlichte bisher 12 CDs unter eigenem Namen und komponiert für Big-Bands, Chöre, Kirchenorgel und Streichquartette, für das britische Fitzwilliam String Quartet, die drei seiner Werke uraufführten, dem zweifachen Grammy Gewinner Mads Tolling (Violine), sowie Eric Ericsons Kammerkor aus Stockholm. Er ist Mitbegründer des christlichen musikernetzwerkes Crescendo Jazz und forscht seit 2015 zusätzlich an den Universitäten Leipzig, Göteborg und Oxford über das liturgische Potential von Jazz und entwickelt liturgische Jazzformate in Kirchen.