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Volker Goetze

About Me

My Jazz Story

Volker Goetze is an award-winning composer, filmmaker and musician. His time in West Africa inspired him to direct a feature-documentary about the oral history of West Africa, extending the work into a live-performance-documentary recounting the creation of the African harp. His trumpet-kora duo transcends both geographic and musical boundaries resulting in a unique musical synthesis that fused the timeless tradition of the storyteller/griot with a modern perspective, set out on a spiritual sonic journey, one that ranges from the desert and coast of West Africa to the urban landscapes of New York, which addresses themes of our ancient spiritual roots, and our hurried, dehumanized modern strife. The recordings received highest honors as best World Music Release by Public Radio International and reached #1 on iTunes (World Music Album). This making him a specialist in working and supporting oral cultures creating new narratives transmitting the culture into the 21st century. Past performances include the Jazz Gallery New York, LA Festival of Sacred Music, Paris Jazz Festival, Jazz A Vienne, New Philharmonie Paris, Munich Opera Festival, and Panama World Music Festival. In 2017 Volker Goetze composed a VR work about New York City's mass grave on Hart Island titled 'Unique Places of Death NYC.’ In 2018 he implemented his vision of NYC's first sound sculpture walk called "Sonic Gates", uplifting local communities from sculptors, students, immigrants and residents, bringing new customers and tourists into the Bay Street Corridor driving small business and convincing the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs to double their funding for local artist on Staten Island. Currently he is working on a Community VR Dance, Poetry and Music Performance about indigenous homelessness and genocide celebrating culture overcoming historic trauma.