Stephan
Braun
Born in 1978, cellist Stephan Braun is the winner of the International Jazz Competition in Bucharest and received the Leipzig Integration Prize “Brückenschlag” for his project “Bach barrierefrei” (Bach without barriers). He has worked with renowned artists such as Melody Gardot, Till Brönner, Gil Goldstein, Nils Landgren, and Giora Feidman. Concert appearances have taken him to stages such as the Vienna State Opera, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Olympia Theatre Paris, and festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Pori Jazz Festival, and the New Sea Jazz Festival.
Stephan Braun studied classical cello at the HfMT in Hamburg and jazz cello in Hamburg and at the UdK in Berlin. He was a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Bank and the German Music Fund. As a guest musician, he has performed in productions of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the NDR Bigband, the Cologne Contempory Jazz Orchestra, the Berliner Ensemble
and the Deutsches Theater Berlin. He has received regular invitations to teach at the New Directions Cello Festival in Boston, the Creative Strings Festival in Lausanne, the Cellofestival Rutesheim, and the Asia Pacific Cello Congress in Tokyo, among others. Stephan Braun has taught improvisation and jazz at music academies in Berlin, Hamburg, and Hanover. Since September 2023, he has been teaching jazz cello as a major subject at the Institute for Jazz and Improvised Music at the BrucknerUni in Linz.
Stephan Braun is currently involved in a wide range of projects both nationally and internationally, including as a soloist, with the chamber jazz duo “deep strings,” with actor Wanja Mues, and with jazz guitarist Arne Jansen. His cello playing can be heard on numerous CD recordings, radio and TV broadcasts, and in film scores. Exceptional playing techniques, rhythmic sophistication, and melodic ingenuity reveal a completely new style of cello playing for the 21st century.