Kerstin Haberecht

Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, and raised in the southern Lower Palatinate, the saxophonist discovered her passion for improvisation and consequently also for jazz when she was 13. As a 16 year old, she already had first her Big Band experience, first in the Landesjazzorchester (State Jazz Orchestra) Karlsruhe ("The Hip Herd"), then in the Landesjugendjazzorchester (State Youth Jazz Orchestra) of Rhineland-Palatinate. She studied jazz and popular music under Steffen Weber, Denis Gäbel and Thomas Bachmann at the Hochschule für Musik (Music College) in Mainz from 2008 to 2015 and has been in charge of the Jugendjazztage (Youth Jazz Days) in Frankfurt since 2013. In the past, she also played in the hr Big Band and the Mainz Philharmonic as well as alongside of Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Joe Gallardo, Jiggs Wigham and Sebastian Sternal and won second prize in the ensemble of the pianist Jan Felix May at the European Next Generation Jazz Award in Burghausen in March 2016.