Maria Baptist
| Maria Baptist | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 August 1971 East Berlin |
| Genres | Jazz, classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist, composer |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Labels | Maria Baptist Music |
| Website | mariabaptist |
Maria Baptist (born 30 August 1971) is a German musician (pianist, composer) and professor.
Maria Baptist was born in 1971 in East Berlin in a very musical family. Her grandfather was an orchestra musician and composer, her father himself is a pianist. Maria discovered very early her fascination for music and at the age of six she began playing the piano. At the age of eleven she composed her first pieces. Maria developed her desire to become a classical concert pianist. At the age of fifteen Maria listened to recordings of Dave Brubeck and Keith Jarrett and discovered for the first time the world of jazz and improvisation. Impressed by the musical expression, Maria felt that she had to continue on this path. She began studying piano at the music university in Berlin and won her first international piano competitions on improvisation. During this period, the Berlin Wall fell, which meant a great personal change in Maria's life. She took the opportunity to move to New York. Here Maria experienced the freedom, space and magic, which opened up whole new musical worlds to her. Maria's artistic work was significantly influenced and inspired by the tremendous creativity, energy, living will, the strength and melancholy of the metropolis.
What remains until today is Maria's musical curiosity: Her music is characterised by absolute openness, she breaks up genre boundaries and without effort there comes energy that builds up to fascinating ranges of sounds. During her composition studies in New York with Maria Schneider, Maria Baptist came into contact with the orchestral music. "Her music is a gift, infused with all the creativity, power, emotion, generosity and warmth that she exudes in life.“ commends the famous American big band composer the work of her Berlin colleague Maria Baptist.
With twenty-five Maria returns to Berlin and is celebrated as the great young talent by the press and her audience. During this time she won a series of internationally renowned competitions including the Leipzig jazz price, the hr Big Band Composition Contest, the prize of the Thad Jones Competition for full orchestra with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra in Copenhagen and the NDR Composers Competition. Maria was invited to festivals and concerts throughout Europe. She thrilled her audience with her virtuoso ease, her passionate devotion and authenticity. Well-known soloists such as Ingrid Jensen, Rolf Kühn & Gitte Haenning and ensembles such as the Rias Big Band, the hr Big Band & Budapest Jazz Orchestra, were working together with Maria. Parallel to all the concerts, Maria finished her studies. Her curiosity was unlimited: In Berlin at the age of twenty-four, she started studying classical composition. Her two studies laid the foundation for a further focus of Maria's career: the joy of teaching. At the age of twenty-six, when she was still a student, Maria was already jazz teacher at the University of Music in Berlin. Since the age of twenty-nine she has been a guest professor at the University of Music "Hanns Eisler", where she teaches composition, arranging, improvisation and jazz theory.
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