Stefan Muenzer

My path as a musician did not follow the conventional trajectory expected today. I do not come from a musical family, nor do I hold a prestigious degree in jazz or composition. Although I studied jazz, piano, contemporary piano music, and free improvisation at renowned conservatories in Hamburg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), and Leipzig (Germany), I ultimately discontinued those studies. Instead, I pursued an academic career in psychology; today I am a professor of psychology at the University of Mannheim. As fas as my piano music is concerned, I regard myself as a dropout from music conservatory and as an autodidact as a composer and improviser.

There are advantages to life as a dropout and autodidact. I focus exclusively on developing my own music. My music is independent, created without regard for expectations. Consequently, anyone wishing to get to know my work cannot rely on quick references or genre stereotypes; one simply has to listen.

Naturally, I have been influenced and deeply impressed by listening to and playing great music—ranging from classic composers for the piano J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, and Debussy, jazz improvisers on the piano Hampton Hawes, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Joachim Kühn, Kenny Kirkland, to modern composers such as Dimitri Shostakovich, Steve Reich and György Ligeti. I appreciate the rhythmic drive of jazz, the evocative sonorities of impressionism, the structural precision of minimalism, and the openness of free music. I love the way improvised music emerges in the moment through relational richness. However, I always felt that I was searching for something different. This feeling motivates me to embark on a journey of discovery for my own music, avoiding learning by imitation and avoiding playing in defined styles. My journey has been going on for about three decades now and will continue.

My music evolves very slowly—as a process—through playing and listening. The music must possess organic flow, sustained by an internal logic, not by following rules. Discovering and refining this flow takes a great deal of time, requiring periods of stepping back and grappling with dissatisfaction, followed by returning to the work to improve it. My music is not a matter of construction, intellect, or a conscious "program," but rather something crafted and shaped by hands and ears—something that remains in flux, never definitively "finished." The result is a personal, "absolute" music. It tells no stories and makes no external references; there are no adolescent crises to be heard here. The music is immediately accessible; it is emotional, it requires no intellectual superstructure. Listeners are free to form whatever internal associations they wish.

Improvisation plays a major role in my music. There are two approaches to this. Improvisation can be highly open and original, steering a piece—based on a spontaneous impulse—in a direction never before experienced. On the other hand, improvisation can exist in a clear, pre-planned balance with the composition; in this case, it must align with the composition across various parameters and remain specific in nature. According to the second approach, I have been writing out more and more piano compositions—including examples of improvisations—so that other pianists can play them as well, should they wish to do so. I also develop educational materials for learning improvisation on the piano and give workshops occasionally. Here, I do not address jazz styles, but provide a broader sense of improvisation.  

My first solo album, *INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE*, was released in 2015. The German record label wismART recently released our first trio album, *UTOPIA* (Stefan Münzer, p, Jan Oestreich, b, Christian Fischer, dr). Another solo album and another trio album have been recorded and are currently being prepared for release.

Awards

International Improvisation Competition held at HMT "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig, Germany (2002): First Prize

Gear

Yamaha CF III S, 2006 (predecessor of the CFX)