"Matthias Muche (D) trombone, born in 1972 lives in Cologne and works as musician and media artist. He studied trombone at the Amsterdam School of the Arts, in Rotterdam and at the "Hochschule für Musik" in Cologne with Bart van Lier, Henning Berg and Paulo Alvares and also audiovisual media with Anthony Moore at the academy of media arts cologne. Muche works in several formations, e.g. with the James Choice Orchestra, Das Mollsche Gesetz, Nils Klein Tentett, Schäl Sick Brass Band and with Mischa Mengelberg, Larry Ochs and Robyn Schulkowsky, having concert tours through Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

As media artist, Muche combines contemporary music with new media in his audiovisual works. his latest works were presented in bern, paris and during the Art Cologne. Together with Sven Hahne he has been Artistic Director of the FRISCHZELLE festival for Intermedial Performance since 2004. Furthermore he is founder member of ZEITKUNST, which is an association for the advancement and conveyance of audiovisual art."

"Matthias Müller was born 1971 in Zeven, Germany and starting playing trombone in the local trombone choir at the age of 10. From 1994 to 1999 he studied jazz-trombone at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he also made his first steps into improvised music. His CD "Bhavan", which was released in 2004, was produced by Chicago based musician and journalist John Corbett. In the same year he moved to Berlin and has since been regularly playing with internationally recognized improvisers such as John Edwards, Mark Sanders, George Lewis, Johannes Bauer, Jeb Bishop, Tobias Delius, Olaf Rupp, Paul Lovens, Toshimaru Nakamura, Clayton Thomas, Michael Vorfeld, Axel Dörner, and many more. He is a member of the 24-piece improvising ensemble, "Splitter Orchester", and was also a member of the "German-French Jazzensemble" under the direction of Albert Mangelsdorff. In addition, Müller is also active in the field of contemporary music, having worked with the Berlin-based ensembles "Xenon", "Work In Progress", and "Zinc & Copper Works". He also took part in the performance and CD-recording of composer Mark Andre's opera "...22, 13...". Müller has toured Africa, Asia, North America and many countries in Europe, having played on numerous festivals, and released more than 20 CDs of his own projects."

"Adrian Prost (*1989) is a freelance trombonist based in Essen, moving fluidly between jazz and free improvisation. A member of the European avant-garde jazz collective The Dorf, he performs across the continent."

"Carlotta Armbruster was born in Stuttgart in 2004 and began learning classical trombone at the age of nine. After several years in the trombone choir and school big band, she began a preliminary course in jazz trombone at the HMdK Stuttgart with Johannes Lauer in 2020. She began her bachelor's degree in 2023 at the HfMT in Colgone with Shannon Barnett. She played in the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Jazz Orchestra and was a member of the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra from 2023 to 2024, with which she toured Ecuador and Montenegro. With the Euroradio Jazz Orchestra of the European Broadcasting Union, she played concerts in Lithuania in 2023 and in 2025 she performed on stage in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie as a participant in the week-long 'Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy'.

Carlotta Armbruster is an integral part of the Cologne jazz scene and performs as a trombonist in her own and other musically diverse projects throughout Germany. Her stylistic spectrum ranges from freely improvised music to duo and trio ensembles to large ensembles and big bands. She has played concerts with Pablo Held, Robert Landfermann, Will Vinson and Christof Lauer, WDR and HR Big Band, among others, as well as at renowned festivals such as the Cologne Jazzweek. In a duo with drummer Jonas Heck, she won the main prize at 'Jugend jazzt' in 2022 and the two were winners of the 'Biberacher Jazzpreis'."

"Daniel Riegler � Trombone, Composition. Born in 1977, Graz, Austria.

Works as a freelance trombonist, composer, ensemble director and producer of improvised, contemporary and jazz-related music. As a trombonist he regularly performs with the Klangforum Wien, as a composer and ensemble leader, he received commissions from renowned ensembles and institutions (21er Haus Wien, ensemble f�r neue musik z�rich, NDR Big Band, Jazz Festival Saalfelden �).

He co-founded the JazzWerkstatt Wien and works intensely as the artistic director of the self founded chamber ensemble Studio Dan. He has received numerous grants and awards (Staatsstipendium f�r Komposition 2015, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik/Bestenliste 02/2010,�)

Furthermore, he works/ed, among others with Elliott Sharp, Vinko Globokar, Michel Doneda, Friedrich Cerha and the ensemble �die reihe�.

He lives with cellist Maiken Beer and his two children in Vienna.

"Jeb Bishop was born in Raleigh, North Carolina during the Cuban missile crisis. He began playing the trombone at the age of 10, under the tutelage of Cora Grasser. Other influential teachers during junior high and high school included Jeanne Nelson, Eric Carlson, Richard Fecteau, Greg Cox, and James Cozart.

He majored in classical trombone performance at Northwestern University from 1980-82, studying with Frank Crisafulli. Deciding he did not want to pursue a career as an orchestral musician, he returned to Raleigh in 1982 and took up engineering studies at NC State University. Raleigh's developing underground rock scene attracted him, and from 1982-84 he played bass guitar in rock bands in the Raleigh area.

At the same time, he developed an interest in philosophy, eventually majoring in the subject, and spent 1984-85 studying philosophy at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.

Returing to Raleigh in 1985, he spent the next few years working at menial jobs and playing guitar, bass, cheap keyboards, drums, etc., in rock bands including and/or, the Angels of Epistemology, Egg, and Metal Pitcher.

In 1989 he left Raleigh to pursue graduate studies in philosophy, first at the University of Arizona, then at Loyola University of Chicago (where he was awarded the Crown Fellowship in the Humanities). During 1991-92 he returned to Europe, spending the summer of 1991 studying German at the Goethe-Institut Iserlohn (now closed), and then pursuing independent studies in philosophy at the French-language division of the University of Louvain.

Returning to Chicago in 1992, he completed his M.A. at Loyola in 1993. By this time he had already begun to make connections with improvising musicians in Chicago, having joined the Flying Luttenbachers as bassist (later adding trombone) in late 1992, and playing guitar occasionally in a quartet with Weasel Walter, Ken Vandermark, and Kevin Drumm. Other bands during this period included the Unheard Music Quartet (with Vandermark, Mike Hagedorn on trombone, and Otto Huber on drums) and the Rev Trio (with Walter and saxophonist Joe Vajarsky). Bishop played electric bass in both these bands.

In late 1995, Bishop joined the Vandermark 5 as one of its founding members, and remained with the band through the end of 2004. During this period he also became associated with many other groups, including the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, School Days, Ken Vandermark's Territory Band, and his own Jeb Bishop Trio, and became a very frequent participant in ad hoc and free-improvised concerts in Chicago. Bishop performed in the inaugural concerts of two of the longest-running free-music concert series in Chicago: the Myopic Books weekly concerts (originally at Czar Bar; with Rev Trio) and the Empty Bottle Wednesday night concert series (with a quartet of Terri Kapsalis, Kevin Drumm, and Jim O'Rourke). He curated the monthly Chicago Improvisers Group concerts at the Green Mill from 1999-2002, and co-curated the weekly Eight Million Heroes concert series at Sylvie's in 2005-6.

Bishop has made dozens of recordings with many different groups, has toured North America and Europe many times, and maintains a busy performing schedule."

"Maria Trautmann, born in 1990, is a freelance musician, performer and director. After studying jazz trombone at Folkwang University of the Arts with Professor Ansgar Striepens, earning a BA in Performing Artist, she completed a Master's degree in Artistic Research (MA Theatre) at the Toneelacademie Maastricht with Bart van den Eynde. A central focus of her artistic work is free improvisation, which she explores in both musical and performative contexts.

One example is the ensemble Hilde, founded in 2018 with musicians Marie Daniels, Emily Wittbrodt and Julia Brüssel, which was nominated for Live Act of the Year at the German Jazz Prize in 2026. As a musician and performer, she also works in various theatres and constellations, including with Junge Bühne Bochum, Subbotnik and, most recently, JES Stuttgart.

As a director, she has adapted several literary works for the stage, including Der Wendepunkt by Klaus Mann, Momo by Michael Ende and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, which were performed, among other venues, at Rottstr5 Theater Bochum. Her artistic practice is shaped by interdisciplinary collaboration and the search for the imperfect intersection between structure and freedom."

"Born and raised in the woods of North Bavaria by a lively family of creatives, rooted in South Germany and former settlements in Ukraine and Romania, I went to the Carneval city of Cologne, to be a musician.

After the partly strict schooly and bully style of German schools (Labenwolf-Gymnasium Nürnberg), jazz departments (Nuremberg and Cologne) and universities (Cologne and Bonn), I learned about life and music from people at countries like Austria, France, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, United Arabian Emirats, Kuweit, China, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Ghana.

First of all, I love music, I love to do it and I love to teach it. Like people do, when they are admiring something.

Music makes me laugh, dance, cry, horny, happy, sad, peaceful and kind. It is life. It is a gift.

I improvise, compose, think, talk and celebrate music every day since almost 40 years;), on:

trombone, tuba, trumpet, voice, piano, guitar, recorder, harmonium, my body, everything there is useful...

Say hallo!

People and groups I currently work with:

(front) Hofmeisterschuller, Christina Zurhausen, Hanna Schörken

(side) Bonecrusher, Fuchsthone Orchestra, Electronic ID

People and groups, I worked with in the past in random order:

(front) Multitude

(side) EOS Kammerorchester, Subway Jazzorchestra, WDR Bigband, Sunday Night Orchestra, Monika Roscher, Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik, Bergische Sinfoniker, Oper Koeln, Kinderoper Koeln, Vagrancy Ensemble

Documents: Bachelor of Music, 1. Staatsexamen Lehramt Musik an Gymnasium und Gesamtschulen, 2. Staatsexamen: broken up;)"

Maximilian Wehner is a trombonist and composer whose work spans jazz, improvisation and groove-oriented experimental music. Born in 1984, he is a member of the jazz/kraut/noise collective The Dorf and the jazz-punk septet Botticelli Baby, and performs in smaller formations including Random Idiots, The Unwetter and wehnermehner, where he explores electro-groove, improvisation and expanded sonic approaches to the trombone.

Moritz Anthes is an Essen-based German trombonist, composer and arranger active in jazz, improvised music and experimental forms. He studied at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen with Ansgar Striepens and spent an Erasmus semester in Lucerne with Nils Wogram. He is associated with Jan Klare's large improvising orchestra The Dorf, performs as a bassist with the Essen noise-dub ensemble ENDE, and released his solo debut, Von einem der viele, in 2021, exploring unconventional and highly personal approaches to the trombone.

"Moritz Wesp plays trombone, virtual trombone and other instruments, that he designs, programs and builds. Working in several bands in and around Cologne (Germany), he improvises and composes music and does all kind of interdisciplinary works.

He is member of NOW MY LIFE IS SWEET LIKE CINNAMON as well as part of other groups, like Mariá Portugal EROSÃO, Katrin Scherer's CLUSTER Quartet and Matthias Muche's BONECRUSHER. Besides this, he regularly creates music for dance pieces.

Since 2018 he holds a masters degree in trombone. During his studies in trombone and composition at the Hochschule Luzern Musik and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, his teachers were Siegfried Koepf, Henning Berg, Frank Gratkowski, Nils Wogram and Dieter Manderscheid.

He played at well known festivals, like the Moers Festival, Jazzfest Berlin, Night of Surprise Köln, Klaeng Festival, Winterjazz Köln, Bezau Beatz, in the Philharmonie Köln and toured to countries such as Brazil, Morocco, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus."

Trombonist Till Künkler is a versatile performer active across contemporary music, jazz and free improvisation, with studies in Cologne, Frankfurt and New York. He has performed with ensembles including Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, Omniversal Earkestra and Ensemble Modern, and has worked with Dave Taylor & NY Trombone Consort, Roscoe Mitchell, Toshinori Kondo and Klangforum Wien, touring widely in Europe, the United States, Mali and Brazil.

"Etienne Nillesen is an active voice on the European creative music scene, with regular performances across Europe, Asia, America and Africa.

His main focus is improvisation with ongoing collaborations including the trio OGU, and STØY, in which he is exploring all the possibilities of music, playing a snaredrum and a cymbal with all kinds of sticks, toys, bells and bows.

His interest in various forms of exploratory music gave him an opportunity to work with artists as, as well as the opportunity to work with artists such as Claudio Puntin, Philip Zoubek, Sebastian Gramss, Matthias Schrief, Shelley Hirsch, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Eivind Aarset, Florian Weber, Simon Nabatov, Ernst Reijseger (CN), Tom Arthurs, Robert Landfermann, Bram Stadhouders, Jeroen van Vliet, Udo Moll, Sebastian Duboc, Simin Tander, Frank Wingold, Frederik Köster and Matthias Muche. Beishan International Jazz (CN), Bohemia Jazzfest (CZ), OCT-LOFT Jazz (CN), Women in Jazz (DE), Jazzfest Berlin (DE), The Hague Jazz (NL), Madrid International Jazzfestival (ES), Catania Jazz (I), Caïro International Jazzfest (EG) and clubs all over the world."