Cornelius Claudio Kreusch
Jazz pianist and composer Cornelius Claudio Kreusch has worked with Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Salif Keïta, Kenny Garrett, Bobby Watson, Greg Osby, Will Calhoun, Anthony Cox, Terri Lyne Carrington, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, James Genus and many other important jazz musicians. Originally classically trained with students of Francis Poulenc and Vladimir Horowitz, he studied closely with Charles Mingus' legendary pianist Jaki Byard, among others, and graduated with honours from Berklee College of Music (B.M.), Boston, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M.), New York City. He received the Berklee Performance Award in '93 and '94, as well as the President's Award in '95 and '96 from the Manhattan School of Music. The pianist was a finalist in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, winner in the International Songwriting Competition in the jazz category, and performs worldwide, from the Montreux Jazz Festival to the Blue Note in New York, playing in classical concert series, and touring in many countries, from India to Cuba to Saudi Arabia.

24 CDs under his own name, including the successes "BlackMudSound" (ENJA), "Scoop" (ACT), "Live! At Steinway Hall / New York" (BMG), "Life is Beautiful" (MJM), "Heart & Soul" (GLM), various awards and critical acclaim are proof of a distinctive creative power. His latest solo album is the highly acclaimed double CD "ZAUBERBERG - A musical Hommage to Thomas Mann" (GLM). The Bayerischer Rundfunk once described him as follows: "This frenzied musical alchemist, this obsessive quick-thinker, this eruptive sound manufacturer robs you of your senses and half your mind: you can only take off your hat and capitulate. Kreusch sweeps all the piano titans of the century, whether their names are Tatum or Solal, Horowitz, Gould, Kühn, Hancock or Jarrett, into the mind-whirlpool of his mad virtuosity and, with some old standards in mind, undertakes a daredevil keyboard rally of constant metamorphoses, into the violent chain reaction of his sparkling, incredibly creative imagination."