Spring 2009

Made it through another winter, ‘aber was für einen!’ Really cold (-12°C) when I returned early January from Chennai.
Just a few hours before that I was happily walking down Besant Nagar beach in shorts and T-Shirt!
Some of my first gigs for the year were at the Nationaltheater Mannheim with repeat performances of ‘Alessandro’, the Barock Opera which has run so successfully that its going to be continued in early 2010 too.
Soon after, I recorded the second album of Vitold Rek’s East West Wind. This time the trio became a quartet with with the addition of Israeli singer Michal Cohen.
In March I was invited by Mike Herting as guest professor to take part in the BuJazzO meets India project. It was 10 days of pretty intensive work with some of the most talented young musicians from Germany. The ‘Arbeitsphase’ followed by a concert was so successful, that a tour of India in 2010 is now being realised!
Right after this I had two performances with Sigi Schwab’s Ramayana, a suite in five movements written for a sextet, featuring musicians from the Percussion Project and Ensemble Amanti della Musica.

Another highlight this spring was my trip to London beginning of April to perform with 10 musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, called Renga, along with my colleagues Mike Herting, Ramamani and T.A.S. Mani. Funnily enough this project too has been proposed for a tour of India! As they say, when it rains it pours!!