TILL BRÖNNER
Till Brönner, born 1971 near Dusseldorf, has become Germany´s most successful Jazz musician in history. Although considered as „trumpet virtuoso“ his exceptional sensitivity for sound and melody brought him the reputation of being the "German Chet Baker". Brönner stems from a family of musicians and enjoyed a classical education followed by a study of the jazz trumpet at Cologne’s Music Academy with the late Jon Eardley, one of Charlie Parker’s and Chet Baker’s allies at the time. His numerous encounters include greats from both the jazz and pop world like Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, Annie Lennox, George Benson, Melody Gardot. Hildegard Knef, Madeleine Peyroux, Kurt Elling, Carla Bruni, Michael Brecker, Al Di Meola, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Al Jarreau or Michael Franks to name but a few. In April 2016 he was invited to the White House in Washington to perform at the annual International Jazz Day Concert by Unesco - hosted by President Barack Obama.
Inspired by the works of music and faishon photographer William Claxton portrayed in a 2001 documentary called „Jazz Seen“ by german director Julian Benedikt (which Brönner wrote the soundtrack for) he became more and more aware of the evident commonalities between Jazz and photography, a mutual windfall that led to many careers and also a personal friendship with Claxton who also photographed Brönner repeatedly. After buying his first Leica M8 camera in 2009 he started to take portraits of his fellow musicians before he took heart to ask artists outside his own circle for portraits – actors, athletes, authors, activists. Veterans or newcomers – Brönner’s collection started to arouse wider interest with prestigious publishers such as Hendrik TeNeues from TeNeues Publishing who agreed to release Brönner’s photography book „Faces of Talent“ in October 2014.
Brönner’s undoubtedly strong discipline has been the portrait. With his project "Melting Pott“ for MKM Museum Küppersmühle for contemporary arts in Duisburg/Germany Brönner changed his point of view to a much wider angle. His 185-works Exhibition show and portray an entire region - the Rhine-Ruhr-District, former center of cole-mining with a current population of 18 million people and key spot for industry-architecture and ethnical coexistence in Germany.
It was followed by a large group exhibition “HEIMWEH” at Villa Schöningen in Potsdam/Germany, curated by Harald Falckenberg, displaying works by Klaus Staeck, OpenMemoryBox and Brönner.
In July 2021 Brönner expanded his artistic view on a highly explosive matter: EUROPE.
Curated by Prof. Walter Smerling and largely supported by the the Brost Foundation/ Essen Brönner opened his next solo show at Ludwig Museum Koblenz/Germany with an abstract essay on the beauty, mentality, landscape and last but not least people of the European continent. Only 6 months later, with the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Brönner finds himself right in the epicentre of rekindled discussions on the European idea and concept.
Arrangements are presently being made to open his next international museum show “Identity - Landscape Europe” April 13, 2024 at Ludwig Museum in Budapest /Hungary while his current Exhibition is still on display at Silesian Museum in Katowice / Poland until the end of March 2024.
Brönner calls Berlin and Los Angeles his home and travels intensely - always with his trumpet, never without his camera.
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