Joerg Kaufmann
saxophone-flute-composition
 

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From 1980 onwards, saxophonist and composer Jörg Kaufmann studied school music (main subject: flute) and German studies at the Saarland University of Music and Performing Arts, under Theo Brandmüller , Clemens Kremer and Kurt Cromm, among others.

In 1983, Kaufmann transferred to the Cologne University of Music. There, he studied with Jiggs Whigham, Manfred Schoof, Axel Jungbluth, Rainer Brüninghaus, James Towsey, Wolfgang Engstfeld, and Jesse Bennett.

In the years 1983-1999 numerous tours and productions took place, including with Supersession, Alphonse Mouzon, Bob Mintzer, Slide Hampton, Pete York, Bobby Shew, Peter Herbolzheimer, Danny Gottlieb, John Scofield, Matthias Rüegg, Billy Cobham, Axel Fischbacher and many others.

In 1990, Jörg Kaufmann became a lecturer at the music academy in Arnhem (Netherlands) and in 1991 artistic director of the Bayer Big Band, which he still leads today.

In 1995 the first production of the Jörg Kaufmann Trio was released under the name "Sketches" , together with bassist Stefan Rademacher and drummer Kurt Billker .

From 2000 to 2008, Jörg Kaufmann was a permanent member of the SWR Big Band  , where he had the opportunity to work with numerous artists of international renown: Sammy Nestico, Bob Florence, Bob Curnow, Toshiko Akyioshi, Don Menza, and Rob McConnell are undoubtedly among the most influential big band composers of all time. His collaboration with Paul Kuhn, Hugo Strasser, and Max Greger was particularly intensive during this period.

Since 2003, Kaufmann has worked regularly with world-class organist  Barbara Dennerlein .

In 2003, another CD production was released under the band's own name: Cool - Music From West Side Story . Featuring guest soloists  Bobby Shew and Mathias Haus,   this production showcases new facets of Leonard Bernstein's brilliant compositions.

The two most recent CD releases under his own name are the 2008 production "Personal Heroes" (Joerg Kaufmann Quartet) and the 2016 CD  "Now and Zen" together with the German-Canadian percussionist Johannes Welsch . On this production, Jörg Kaufmann explores completely new musical paths, as there are no longer any compositions in the classical sense; rather, the entire CD is freely improvised.

After twenty years of teaching at the Arnhem Academy of Music (Netherlands) and teaching positions at the universities in Cologne and Mainz, Joerg Kaufmann studied again from 2010 to 2012 at the teacher training college in Essen and completed this training with a second state examination for teaching at grammar schools and comprehensive schools in 2012.

From 2010 to 2023, Kaufmann was a teacher of music and the subject "Performing and Design" at the Bettine-von-Arnim Comprehensive School in Langenfeld