Florian Weber

Florian Weber (born November 20, 1977 in Detmold) is a German pianist and composer of modern jazz.

Florian Weber is the son of music professor Rainer Weber, and opera singer Elke Weber. At the age of four, Florian began taking private lessons and by the time he graduated from high school, he had participated in both classical and jazz ensembles, winning 1st place competition prizes, and had the opportunity to tour as a soloist with various philharmonic orchestras.

In 1999, Florian got a scholarship to continue at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Later he began to study with John Taylor in Cologne, Germany, Joanne Brackeen and Paul Bley in Boston and Richie Beirach and Lee Konitz in New York.

Since 2001, Florian won the Steinway & Sons prize at the Montreaux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition, the Gotrian Steinweg prize of Weimar, the 1. Prize at the Jazzcompetition Monaco and the German critics award. He performed or recorded e.g. with Eddy Henderson and Lee Konitz. (The album was rewarded with the Choc de l´Anne, Jazzman magazine), Pat Metheny, Ralph Alessi, Lionel Loueke, Dan Weiss, Thomas Morgan, Markus Stockhausen, Thomasz Stanko, Albert Mangelsdorff, and Benny Bailey. Florian was the first German piano player to record live at the Village Vanguard.

Together with the US bass player Jeff Denson and Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz Florian Weber founded the Trio Minsarah in 2002. „A Minsarah (Hebrew for prism) bundles light to a multi-coloured spectrum. Weber, Denson and Ravitz simply reverse this process, send Swing, Bebop, Bartók, Bach, Funk, Rock, African, Oriental, Chorales, Repetitions, Bitonality and free play exactly into the opposite and though create a totally new and brilliant style.“ In 2006 Weber released Weber with mit Minsarah the first CD of the same name. The CD was awarded with the „Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik“ ("German Record Critics' Award").

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