mira lu kovacs

Hello again!
Too many things were going on lately to keep track here. But now I´m trying to give you a short overview of my past view weeks.
Once again, Jazzseminar Schönbach was a highlight of the year so far. The spirit among the students and the teachers is exciting and I always recharge my batteries during the workshop. My piano students were super and again my favourite thing was coaching my ensemble. We had an amazing instrumentation: 2 live electronic players, drums, electric bass, electric guitar, 2 keyboard players, violin, 2 flute players + facebass, trumpet, 2 singers + ukulele. Our slogan was “Electro Jazz” and we were inspired by Jimi Hendrix´”The Wind cries Mary”, one of my all time favourite songs. The ensemble composed new pieces and we played an exciting 15min opus at the final concert. Thanks everybody at Jazzseminar Schönbach! Here some snapshots of my ensemble:

Then we played a fantastic concert at sold out Arena in Vienna with 5/8erl in Ehr´n. 1100 people were there and the crowd was amazing – our fans are the greatest:

From September 5-8 our JazzWerkstatt Wien festival “VIENNA ROOMSERVICE” took place at Porgy&Bess. Many people attended the festival and the artists played incredible concerts. My favourite evening was Friday, Andreas Harrer aka antiehdas heated up the audience with a fantastic 10min performance “Kreation und Depression”. Then my long-time companions Maja Osojnik and Matija Schellander teamed up with Raumschiff Englmayr and Daniel Lercher to present their audio-visual performace “W.I.L.D”, which was very “trance” and an archaic experience. Afterwards Mira Lu Kovacs took the center stage and played with her trio “Schmied´s Puls”. They presented their new record “Play Dead”, which in my opinion is a masterpiece. I was very touched by their concert and I highly recommend listening to Mira and her music – on record or live. Here´s the new CD, available HERE:

Last week I went to Nice in France to participate in “Jeux de la Francophonie” with singer Valérie Sajdik. We played a preselection concert and advanced to the finals. The finals took place at the opera in Nice. Five participants were selected to perform a 15min live set. What I didn´t know before – it was broadcasted on French television and over 50 million people tuned in! We also performed a composition of mine called “Les Nuits Blanches”, which is also the title song of Valérie´s upcoming album, to be released on October 7.
So far and no further! Have a good start in autumn everybody!

Clemens Wenger

composer | performing artist

SAD SONGS TO CRY TO

Emotional Rescue