Olivia Trummer

(*12th June 1985) Born into a professional musicians' family, German pianist, composer, vocalist and songwriter Olivia Trummer began studying music at the age of 4 with her mother, pianist/organist Michaela Hartmann-Trummer and her father, pianist/conductor Enrico Trummer. From the very beginning, she was interested not only in classical music, but also in improvisation and composition which finally caused her to study both classical piano and jazz piano at the University of Music in Stuttgart, Germany, where she graduated with distinction in July 2008. Additionally, she takes private lessons with New York pianist Richie Beirach. Supported by the German Academic Exchange Service with a full scholarship, Olivia was living in New York City for one year, studying a Master of Music's degree for Jazz Piano at the Manhattan School of Music (w Gary Dial). As a performer, she almost exclusively presents original compositions. Even in her classical concerts she uses to involve elements of improvisation. (For instance, in a concert, where she played the solo part of a Mozart piano concerto with orchestra 2006, she additionally wrote her own cadences in styles of jazz and performed them with her jazz trio at the Liederhalle/Beethovensaal in Stuttgart/Germany.) Olivia has been invited to perform in places such as the Zankelhall/Carnegie Hall (NYC), Schloss Elmau, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Philharmonie Essen, the Solo Piano Jazz Festival 2007 in Prague/Czech Republic, Jazz Open Hamburg, International Theaterhaus Jazz Festival, Bavarian Jazz Weekend, Jazz Open Stuttgart, Jazztage Dresden, Jazztage Ludwigsburg, Jazztage Weinstadt, the Popkom in Berlin and many others. Olivia's discography includes her debut album with jazz trio “Nach Norden” and her second album, "Westwind" (CD and LP!), produced by Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg, Germany. Both CDs are available all over Europe and Japan and have been awarded many times, for example with the German Critics Choice Award 2008 and "CD of the month" (magazine stereoplay 05/08 and 11/06). On her third album "Nobody knows" (to be released in February 2010), Olivia will be featured not only as a pianist/composer but for the first time also as a vocalist and songwriter with four of her own songs. She received numerous orders to compose or arrange pieces for choir, string quartet, stage music, musical and jazz ensemble. As a pianist, since 1999, she was the winner of several national and international competitions such as the Matthaes Piano Competition (Stuttgart), the Karel Kunc Chamber Music Competition (international) or at “Jeunesse Musicales”, where she was awarded five times, among them two 1st national prizes. In August 2007, she gained the 2nd prize of the International Piano Competition “Palma d'Oro” in Finale Ligure (Italy) and in addition to that a special award for the best performance of the compulsory work.