10 years Kurt Maas Jazz Award -

Award winners concert Kurt Maas Jazz Award 2023 from July 12, 2023 with focus on Brazil:

This year's Kurt Maas Jazz Award winners' concert in front of the almost sold-out Isarphilharmonie was a complete success. The Munich University Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Prof. Claus Reichstaller, started the concert with a composition by the recently deceased Dusko Goykovich. The Italian saxophonist and director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute Marco Pignataro joined in the performance.

Afterwards, this year's prize winners Elias Prinz (1st prize), Minchan Kim (2nd prize) and Tom Förster (3rd prize) together with their respective ensembles demonstrated the full range of their skills.

Another great addition to the concert were the first-time recipients of the Kurt Maas Jazz Scholarship: the two Brazilian students André Kusmitsch and Feldeman de Oliveria Lacerda. Together with students and teachers of the Jazz Institute, they performed with Grammy Award winner Ivan Lins. The amazing singer Alma Naidu (winner of the second prize of the Kurt Maas Jazz Award 2021) joined in for two wonderful duets with Ivan Lins.

Link to the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVwCo-2uKA

The Kurt Maas Jazz Award

The Kurt Maas Jazz Award is offered to students of the Munich Jazz Institute every year. The core of the competition is the close cooperation with the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA: The first prize of the competition is the participation in a summer school in Boston.

In recent years, artists such as Shuteen Erdenebaatar (piano), Alma Naidu (vocals), Svetlana Marinchenko (Klavier), Moritz Stahl (Saxophon), Rebecca Trescher (Klarinette), Leopold Betzl (Klavier), Matthias Lindermayr (Trompete) were awarded with one of the prizes of the KMJA.

This year the Kurt Maas Jazz Award took place for the 6th time. In the final on February 8, 2023 in Saal X at the Gasteig HP8, Elias Prinz (guitar) was able to prevail against four competitors and won the 1st prize. With this he travels to a summer course at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The 2nd prize - a performance at the Night Club of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich - went to Minchan Kim (drums), and the 3rd prize - funding for a master class at an international jazz academy - was won by saxophonist Tom Förster. A total of 19 candidates had applied for the Kurt Maas Jazz Award 2023, which is open exclusively to students of the Jazz Institute of HMTM. The jury consisted of Camilo Dornier (donator), Prof. Claus Reichstaller (director of the Jazz Institute of HMTM), Prof. Lydia Grün (president of HMTM), Beate Sampson (Bayerischer Rundfunk), Innegrit Volkhardt (Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Munich) and Marco Ostrowski (jazz label ACT Music).

Biographies of the prize winners:

1st prize: Elias Prinz

Elias Prinz grew up in the Allgäu region of Germany and received lessons on classical guitar and electric guitar at an early age. In 2014 he founded the Elias Prinz Trio. At the age of 15, he began his training on jazz guitar with Bernd Hess at the Neue Jazzschool München. Since October 2018, he has been studying at the Jazz Institute of HMTM with Prof. Peter O'Mara. Elias Prinz has already performed at the jazz festival Bingen Swingt in Bingen am Rhein, at the Anderart Festival in Munich, at the Tollwood Munich as well as at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and played concerts in Paris, at the Gypsy Jazz Tage Munich, on an England tour with the London Django Collectiv, at the Django Reinhardt Fest Tilburg (NL) as well as at the Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois sur Seine (FR).

2nd prize: Minchan Kim

Minchan Kim, born in 1986 in South Korea, began his studies in jazz percussion in 2009 at Kyung Hee University, South Korea. After receiving his bachelor's degree in 2012, he taught in his home country at Paekche College of the Arts, Hanyang Academy, and Seoul Jazz Academy before transferring to HMTM's Jazz Institute for his master's degree in 2021. He is currently studying in the class of Prof. Christian. Lettner.

3rd prize: Tom Förster

Tom Förster started playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and took lessons with Max Braun until he began his studies. Between 2017 and 2021, he will complete his bachelor's degree in jazz saxophone at the HMTM with Prof. Axel Kühn. Tom Förster is currently a permanent band member in numerous jazz bands, including the Jazzrausch Bigband (techno jazz), Soulkitchen (soul), Tom Förster Group (fusion). In 2022 he performed with the Jazzrausch Bigband at the German Jazz Award 2022 in Bremen.