Jakob Grimm
For Jakob Grimm, notated and improvised music are not opposites but two paths to the same immediate, speaking sound. As a soloist and chamber musician, his focus lies on music with a contemporary voice — from world premieres to works that ask to be heard in a new light. Composers including Manuel Zwerger, Biagio Putignano, and Mike Svoboda write for him; broadcasters from ORF to BBC Radio 3 have featured his work.
His instrument, the bass trombone, rarely takes the spotlight — which is exactly what makes it so full of undiscovered possibility. His concert engagements have taken him to Wigmore Hall London, the Berlin Philharmonie, Solti Hall Budapest, Santa Croce in Florence, and the Reitschule Grafenegg. As a soloist, he has worked with conductors including Susanne Blumenthal, Konstantia Gourzi, and Verena Mösenbichler.
He is a member of Tetra Brass, a quartet that takes brass chamber music as seriously as string quartets usually do — with a repertoire spanning rediscovered literature and music written specifically for the ensemble, a sound shaped over years together, and concert engagements that regularly take the quartet to festivals such as Grafenegg, Detect Classic, and Wege durch das Land.
In music theatre, his trombone steps out of the pit and into the action: productions have taken him to the Bavarian State Opera, the Munich Biennale, the Schauburg München, and Jeunesse Musicale Austria, working with, among others, Daniella Strasfogel, Katharina Mayrhofer, and the collective Hauen und Stechen. He also performs with ensembles such as the Bavarian State Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.
He trained in Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Basel, studying with, among others, Johannes Herrlich, Uwe Füssel, Mikael Rudolfsson, Reto Bieri, Mike Svoboda, and Marcus Weiss. He is a prizewinner of international competitions and has received scholarships from the Orlandus Lassus Foundation, the Heintzler Foundation, Live Music Now, and the Safran Music Foundation.
He teaches trombone and chamber music at the Berufsfachschule für Musik in Dinkelsbühl and is a regular guest at courses, festivals, and music academies.
As a Buffet Crampon artist, Jakob Grimm plays a bass trombone by Antoine Courtois.