wolf kerschek
composer, arranger, conductor
Composer | Arranger | Conductor
Echo-Klassik and Hamburg Jazz Award winner Wolf Kerschek works internationally as a composer, conductor and arranger. In addition to the who's who of jazz (HR, WDR, NDR Big Band, Metropole Orkest etc.), his spectrum also includes classical music (Tokyo Symphony, Salzburg Camerata, Utah / Nashville Symphony etc.) and national and international pop (from Helene Fischer to Rammstein & from Michael Bolton to Rick Springfield).
He conducted and orchestrated the FIFA anthem that sounds before every soccer World Cup game, composed the official songs for the German Television for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the World Athletics Championships in London and the European Women's Football Championship 2016, the draw for the 2018 World Cup, which he also conducted in the Kremlin and received the titles for the world records as conductor of the largest orchestra in the world (2016) and the largest rock band in the world (2019).
Since 2004 he has been the head of jazz department and professor of jazz composition and ensemble directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.
As a film composer and producer trained in the USA, he has a large network of studio musicians who specialise in large productions with orchestras and big bands.
Wolf Kerschek in the press
The greats of show business benefit from Kerschek's musical expertise. On the other hand, Kerschek composes symphonic music, as he is currently doing for the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück. He has written a concerto for two pianos, band and symphony orchestra, no entertainment, nothing commercial, but 'art without compromise'.
As in earlier compositions, he adeptly embraced the eruptive spectrum of sound between jazz and classical, lightly sprinkling swinging phases into the tricky, tension-generating score, which was full of surprises, stunning with echo effects and rhythmic chess moves.
For the NDR Bigband, he has coupled out the middle movement, and Wolf Kerschek has made a piece for big band out of it. In general, the arranger and in this case also bandleader is the link between Azmeh and the big band, because he arranged the compositions for this collaboration. To call Kerschek the mastermind of the project is certainly not an exaggeration. His high art is not to impose anything on Azmeh's pieces, but to adapt them for the big band from within, so to speak.
The tonal language of the well-traveled artist, schooled in the United States, however, is explicitly rooted in world music and the strongly tonal-color- and effect-oriented U.S. film music. "New classical music" and symphonic jazz support his personal style on the one hand; on the other, Kerschek's confident handling of a contemporary advanced style of writing guarantees an original and original idiom.
The Festival Rhapsody, written by Wolf Kerschek for the anniversary, would do highest honor as a soundtrack to any fantasy film. As a concert piece for trumpet, violin and chamber ensemble, it is another fine proof that even today one can compose tonally, colorfully and to the delight of the listener without slipping into triviality.
The composer clearly also had fun with the fairy tale characters: Melodious "mermaids" pass by in the violins, as "djinn" the orchestra is allowed to make a good wind, while the solo horn as a dumb "giant" stomps along deep and creaking.
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Wie schreibt man Musik zum Thema Wasser, Wolf Kerschek?
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"Trumpet Double Concertos": Matthias Höfs im Klangrausch
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NDR Bigband feat. Golnar Shahyar: Wanting
Discographie
Referenzen
Zitate
Wolf is an amazing MASTER of the art of orchestral composition. I’ve worked with other composers before but none have risen to the caliber that Wolf wields. He holds a gift only given to the Masters of the past, yet he is our gift of this life time. It has been an honor to perform my music along with his magnificent compositions. His additional scores have raised my music to new “HEAVENLY” heights.
Wolf is in my opinion a genius. Everything he writes inspires me. His motives, his harmonic impressions and expressions are all exactly in a way that a pianist just have to love them. He is perhaps the only one I know who can really write for the piano. His music is a clear and understandable language, influenced by film music. It contains many important new elements but also a lot of familiar elements. This music is for me in the spirit of it’s time.
Maestro Wolf Kerschek is brilliant. An amazing writer and arranger, he is incredibly gifted at working with a variety of players, orchestral musicians and rock musicians alike. He has a modern approach and understanding as well as being rooted in the classical works. Such a pleasure to work with him on several projects and I was amazed at how calm he always remained even under pressure. A skilled arranger, an extraordinarily creative writer and an accomplished conductor as well as being a superb human being.
Videos
A small selection of projects in which Wolf Kerschek has been involved as a composer, arranger or conductor in recent years. You can find more videos on the YouTube channel.