Bastian Stein

Bastian Stein was born in Heidelberg into an artist and musician family, but grew up in Vienna where he still lives today. He was already allowed to audit classes at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, when he was 10 years old, and he began his trumpet studies there when he was 15. He continued his studies in Amsterdam for several years where he studied under Ack van Rooyen, among others. In 2005, he received a New York scholarship as prizewinner of the Hans Koller Prize, and he had one year of private lessons from the internationally renowned trumpet instructor Bo Nilsson in Sweden in 2006. With such a solid education from childhood, it is obvious: this young man has no limits with respect to technique. Individualism and creativity in music developed over the years while he toured with various bands, including a longer time in the German Jazz Orchestra under the recently deceased conductor Peter Herbolzheimer, who said that he had "an outstanding gift for composing" and "an outstanding degree of artistic creativity". Consequently, the band members playing with Bastian have to meet high demands, and they do this brilliantly. There are also prizewinners among them. Peter Kronreif was recently awarded the Hans Koller Prize as Newcomer of the Year 2010, and Matthias Pichler has already won a whole slew of prizes. Philipp Jagschitz is a pianist very much in demand in Austria, resulting in a very solid and multifaceted rhythm group. The classic jazz quintet is complete with Christian Kronreif, former student of Harry Sokal and Alan Praskin and a solid member of the Austrian jazz scene in the meantime.