Lorenz Kellhuber

Classical music is firmly anchored in his DNA, jazz taught him to stand on his own two feet, and in free improvisation Lorenz Kellhuber repeatedly finds the boundless fulfillment of his musical vision, a Contemporary Chamber Music. He plays with his own musical history, intuitively seeking out various stations of his musical imprint, ranging from the Baroque to the Modern. There are no limits, except for his own artistic demands.

"Hardly anyone is likely to walk between jazz and 'classical piano music' in such a spectacularly oscillating way as the pianist Lorenz Kellhuber. Whether improvising over ostinati in changing positions or between free tonality and bound harmonic sound anchors, Lorenz Kellhuber creates an intimate, concentrated situation between himself, the piano, the room and his audience," writes the Neue Musikzeitung about his current solo album "Live at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg".

Born in Munich in 1990 as the son of two church musicians, Lorenz Kellhuber began classical piano training with Brigitte Schmid at the HfKM Regensburg at the age of five. At the age of eleven he got accepted as a junior student and as a member of the Bavarian pre college class he also studied violin and chamber music with Prof. Conrad von der Goltz. Later he received piano lessons from Prof. Franz Massinger, a student of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Shortly thereafter, he was discovered by Rob Bargad (Nat Adderley Quintet) who introduced him extensively to Jazz. At the age of only 16, Kellhuber passed the highly gifted exam and became a student at the Jazz Institute in Berlin, where Hubert Nuss and Kurt Rosenwinkel where among his teachers. During his frequent stays in New York, he also received lessons from Fred Hersch and Sophia Rosoff, and graduated in 2010 as one of the world's youngest Bachelor's graduates. Since then, his concerts have taken him throughout Europe, to the USA and to South America. He has played on international stages such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Isarphilharmonie Munich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Montreux Jazz Festival, Basel Jazz Festival, Getxo Jazz Festival, Bohemia Jazz Festival, Mar del Plata Jazz Festival, Jazzwoche Burghausen. Concerts as sideman and co-leader he played alongside Ed Partyka, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Charles Lloyd, Ack van Rooyen, Johannes Enders, Adele Neuhauser & Edi Nulz, Jesse Simpson, Orlando Le Fleming, Steven Heelein, Obed Calvaire, Bob Mintzer and many more. In 2014, he became the first German musician to receive the first place from Monty Alexander in the renowned Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition. He has released a total of eight albums and one EP since 2012, including "The Brooklyn Session" (2015), with Orlando Le Fleming on bass and Obed Calvaire on drums, the solo albums "Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival" (2017), "Contemporary Chamber Music" (2021) and "Live at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg" (2022), and the two trio releases "Samadhi" (2019) and "About:Blank" (2020) with Felix Henkelhausen on bass and Moritz Baumgärtner on drums. Their third release "Low Intervention" will be released at the end of 2023. Since completing his studies, Lorenz Kellhuber has been a sought-after lecturer. He regularly gives workshops and master classes at home and abroad. He already practiced his teaching activities at the HfKM and the University of Regensburg as well as at the University of Music in Nuremberg and Mannheim. Since 2020, he has been a lecturer at the University of Music in Lubeck. In 2021, Kellhuber received an appointment as professor at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. Together with friends from his youth, Lorenz Kellhuber founded the Regensburg Chamber Music Festival in 2020, which he continues to direct and curate.