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Kathrine Windfeld

Danish composer, arranger and piano player, leading her own big band

About Me

“Windfeld's band of leading young Scandinavian musicians is as tight and sharp as any you'll hear” The Guardian

Kathrine Windfeld is considered one of the most exciting and refreshing new Scandinavian jazz composers and arrangers in many years. As a teenager, her strong creative sense was channeled through painting, theatre, singing and piano playing. In her first band, the progressive quintet “Gespenst”, she strongly developed her sense of writing and navigating in complex rhythmical landscapes. Striving for a further exploration of music, she studied music analysis, arranging for big band and choir/ensemble leading at Department of Musicology in Copenhagen. Longing for a more creative environment with focus on jazz and improvisation, she left Musicology and spent two years at the Swedish jazz school “Fridhem”, followed by the performance programme at Malmoe Academy of Music (SE). Meanwhile, she founded her first sextet. In early 2014, she initiated Kathrine Windfeld Big Band (KWBB) - a 15-piece ensemble of brilliant young Scandinavian musicians in Copenhagen. She composed challenging pieces with the characteristics of each band member in mind. In June 2014, the exclusive jazz club “The Standard” in Copenhagen offered the new, young sensational orchestra a weekly gig for two seasons. Her big band debut album AIRCRAFT was released in 2015 and gained overwhelmingly positive response in Scandinavia, where leading papers and jazz magazines praised the expressive composer with an extraordinary talent for big band writing. AIRCRAFT won a prestigious Danish Jazz Grammy and was nominated in further two categories. KWBB's second album LATENCY was released on Stunt Records in March 2017. While AIRCRAFT mainly impressed the Scandinavian listeners, LATENCY got massive international acclaim in leading music magazines: “The music on Latency could pass for a top-notch American big band” Downbeat Magazine (US) In addition to touring with her own ensembles in Europe, Kathrine Windfeld is an in-demand guest composer, leading to highly acclaimed collaborations with the Danish Radio Big Band (DK), Bohuslän Big Band (SE) and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band (DE), with whom she performed two radio broadcast concerts in 2018. Her ambitious work has also inspired international greats such as Mike Stern, Seamus Blake and Gilad Hekselman to share stage with her.

“Kathrine Windfeld is a rising star on the European jazz scene, not least for her bold writing for her adventurous big band” Jazzwise Magazine (UK)