Sebastian Studnitzky has always been a traveller between the realms of jazz, classical and electronic music. He is an internationally acclaimed performer from Germany, with exceptional trumpet and piano skills. Few instrumentalists of his generation have appeared on the stages of so many clubs and festivals all over the world. He has performed with musicians such as Nils Landgren’s Funk Unit, Jazzanova, Mezzoforte and Wolfgang Haffner. STUDNITZKY appears on the tracks of Nightmares on Wax, Moritz von Oswald, Mezzoforte, Dominic Miller, Bodek Janke. In 2012 he founded Contemplate, his own record label and network. In 2014 he initiated the XJAZZ Festival Berlin and took charge as its musical director. It has immediately become Berlin’s largest jazz festival and turned the German jazz scene on its head. Since September 2014 Sebastian Studnitzky has been a professor at the Dresden University of Music. The German music association, Bundesverband Musikindustrie, honoured STUDNITZKY with the ECHO Jazz 2015. In 2020 he was awarded with the OPUS Klassic prize for the duo projekt “A Bernstein Story” with Sebastian Manz.
RADAR Festival Beyond Music has the primary goal to present musical projects dealing with a wide spectrum of artistic forms. When did you become aware of the limitedness of your own artistic form, or, to put it in other words, when did your radar detect the need for multidisciplinary?
Right when I started… My father was a classical conductor, so I had a classical education on piano and trumpet, but of course I listened to pop and rock and later to electronic music and jazz… from early on it was clear for me that it’s all one. Only the quality and sincere deepness of the art matters, not the genre.
Which three words describe the motivation behind your project?
Curiosity & fun by merging styles, romantic soul.
How much of your artistic devotion is inevitable?
If I play and do art, I put all in… Music is everything in that moment. There is no border between me and the music.
If you could create a project in another artistic field or form, what would it be?
Maybe writing? I think a lot about the larger issues of today’s society… and the problems we are having to communicate and facing challenges as a society.
2023 is your personal year for…?
A huge change – from quantity to quality.
When is music beyond?
It always is. Music is proof that there is something bigger, some bigger plan.
Which is your personal radar?
I trust my feelings, my first impression, my first ideas and thoughts.
RADAR Festival Beyond Music has the primary goal to present musical projects dealing with a wide spectrum of artistic forms. When did you become aware of the limitedness of your own artistic form, or, to put it in other words, when did your radar detect the need for multidisciplinary?
I used technology for production and communication of my music. But right now, I’m on the complete opposite path. Technology creates so much noise and distraction. I’m trying to find more offline and unplugged oases.
We often have resident projects at our festival that are spontaneous or dependent on variables, which makes them resistant to reenactment or repetition in the same way. In a sense, these projects remain here and now. What is your reflection upon ‘here and now’?
Jazz and improvised music is always in the now and can never be repeated the same. That’s the beauty of it.
What can we expect from you in Varna on 06.08?
I love the potential of my MEMENTO project to realize it in collaboration with local musicians. It gives us the chance to connect more to the place and people where we perform.
Превод от английски език: Руслан Славов
