BIOGRAPHY

Johannes Berauer – a former student of Jazz legend Bob Brookmeyer – is one of the most productive and diverse young composers of Austria. He effortlessly navigates around the limitations of styles such as classical avant-garde, jazz and world music.

 

His project “The Vienna Chamber Diaries” is a unique synthesis of classical chamber music and jazz and features jazz masters like Gwilym Simcock, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Omer Klein and Klaus Gesing alongside an ensemble of outstanding classical players. Gwilym is also part of his Jazzquintet “Hourglass” with Mike Walker, Britten Sinfonia concert master Thomas Gould, Martin Berauer and Bernhard Schimpelsberger.

 

He has worked as an arranger for Oud master Anouar Brahem on the album “Souvenance” with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and most recently on “Blue Maqams” featuring a quartet with Django Bates, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, both released on ECM.

 

Berauer conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall on his silent movie project "King of Ghosts" – a collaboration with Indian Sarod virtuoso Soumik Datta.

 

Further collaborators and performers of Berauer’s music and arrangements include the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, l'Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, l'Orchestre Ilse de France, Tonkünstler Orchster, Bruckner Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, Jazzorchester Vorarlberg, Juniper Chamber Orchestra Perth, Camerata New York, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and artists like Benjamin Schmid, Friedrich Kleinhapl, Paul Gulda, the Eggner Trio and Austrians rock legend Willi Resetarits.

 

Johannes Berauer received commissions from the Vienna Musikverein, Konzerthaus Wien, Linzer Klangwolke, or the Bruckner Symphony Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies. He has appeared on festivals like the Cheltenham music festival, Cully Jazz Festival, ARS Electronica, Bruckner Festival, and in venues like the Tonhalle Zürich, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Wien, Frankfurt Radio Hall, London King’s Place or Festspielhaus Bregenz to name just a few.

 

Amongst his prizes are the international Gustav Mahler Prize, Scrivere in Jazz, a Fulbright Scholarship and recently the Austrian State Scholarship for composition.

 

Berauer studied at the New England Conservatory and Berklee College in Boston, and the A. Bruckner University of Linz. His teachers were inter alia Bob Brookmeyer, Lee Hyla, Christoph Cech and Gunter Waldek.

 

Johannes Berauer holds a position for Jazz Composition & Arrangement at Music University Graz and has previously taught at the conservatory of Klagenfurt and the Music University Vienna.

 

Foto © Frank G Brody