Heart of Darkness Natalia Mateo

Natalia Mateo
Music and the Arts had always been an integral part of the houshold. She was born in Warsaw, Poland, grew up in Austria, then attended a nuns girls’ school back in Poland, at the time being she is living in Germany. Piano, violin and guitar lessons, the Arts, the nuns, studied languages and humanities, frequent house moving not only left an imprint, they have spun the soul’s fabric into what it is now – a rare mixture, soft but tear-proof, thin as a veil, controversial against the background of all hijab debates, at times thick and rough as biker leather. Against the odds, through the thickett of various projects, teachers, downs and ups, failures and successes (in this exact order) she landed at the Institute for Music in Osnabrück with first class music teachers and a personalised and supportive musical setting. All that is supposedly in the music, but look for yourself.

Lessons and workshops taken with Anne Hartkamp, Tineke Postma, Caroline McPherson, Daniel Mattar, Maria Helmin, Romy Camerun, Fay Claassen, Simin Tander, Andreas Wahl, Efrat Alony, Christian McBride, Christoph Hillmann, David Friedman and others.

Dany Ahmad
Born 1990 in Osnabrück, Germany. He began to play the guitar at the age of 10. From then on he has been taking lessons in classical music as well as in improvised music. Multiple winner of the German, nation-wide music youth contests “Jugend musiziert” and “Jugend Jazzt” as solo guitarrist and as ensemble player. The experiences of playing in many bands (LaJazzO Windmachine, Natalia Mateo, Dany Ahmad Trio, etc.), his enrolment in the early study program and his studies in Osnabrück and Amsterdam as well as his participation in many masterclasses have shown him a broad range of musical means of expression and make him ceaselessly look for new musical ways.

Gregor Lener
Born 1984 in Innsbruck, Austria. He began to play the trupet at the age of 11 and took classical trumpet lessons at music school and lateron at the conservatory Innsbruck. In 2007 he gave up classical studies to take on jazz and popular music studies. Since 2010 he has been studying jazz trumpet at the Institute for Music in Osnabrück. For years he has been playing in BigBands and various jazz formations. Those experiences he is now combining with electronic music.

Masterclass with Ack van Rooyen, Jan Oosthof, Jay Jennings (Snarky Puppy) and others.

Simon Grote
The musical home of Wilhelm Grote (flamenco guitarrist and -teacher) and Barbara Grote (music teacher) shaped him and his brother into multifaceted artists. The playing-experience with many different formations (metal, soul, BigBand, folk, reggae, jazz, show) has been influencing his piano-playing all along, from the age of 6, when he started to take lessons. His initial classical training with Iku Rissmann in Minden was interrupted by a period of autodidacticism, which for him was a time of penetrating the infinite world of improvisation. After successfully completing this period, he took the first jazz piano lessons with Steve Sinko at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hannover. Apart from that his interest for other instruments and means of self-espression have been growing constantly – guitar, mandoline, bass, drums, singing as well as writing, painting and composing. Since he began his studies at the Institute for Music in Osnabrück in 2010 and his piano lessons with Thomas Rückert, he is growinly busy with the production of his own music. The playing-by-ear is very fundamental to him and helps him to many liberties when playing with various musicians or solo. Travelling and a sufficient amount of reading help to keep body and soul in time.

Christopher Bolte Freelance musician, music producer and composer. Played almost 400 concerts with over 20 various bands and projects from all over Germany. Approved musical mentor by the Landesmusikrat Lower Saxony. Since 2011 student at the jazz department at the Institute for Music in Osnabrück.

Lessons and Workshops with: Arnd Geise, Patrick Scales, Achim Seifert, Sebastian Hoffmann, Chrisitan McBride, Florian Weber, Frank Wingold, Stephan Schulze, Christoph Hillmann, Efrat Alony, Peter O’Mara, Dave Liebman, David Friedman, Rainer Glas, Fay Claassen and others.

Fabian Ristau
This mother’s son recognised his love for cooking utensils early on, which intruded upon the peace & quiet in the family and neighbourhood. He was then deported by force to the far-off rehearsing room, together with compulsory and institutionalised instrumentalisation.

From now on he was to spend many lonely hours in a dark, unheated cellar, somewhere in central Germany.

It wasn’t until years later when he was found close to rhythmic depression und slowly re-integrated into something like a social environment. That is also when his first attempts to walk took place, that is – attempts to walk in strange cultural environments. His world-exploring trip brought him to various places of rock-, world and folkmusic, to electronic and populare places, before really approaching the jazz galaxy.

Nowadays he is involved on a freelance basis in various projects. Those are, amongst others, his authorship for the drum journals Drumheads and Soundcheck, the leading of workshops and seminars for the music-academy Sachsen-Anhalt, as well as ensemble- and single coachings.