Johannes Enders
Biography Johannes Enders
Johannes Enders
is a German saxophonist, composer, producer and teacher. Since 2009 he has held a professorship for jazz saxophone at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig. Born in Weilheim on May 12, 1967, Johannes Enders' musical career began at the age of 14 when he switched from the flute to the alto saxophone and discovered his love for soul and jazz music. Strong influences for him at that time were Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, David Sanborn, James Brown, Michael Brecker and later finally Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.
It quickly becomes clear to him that music will determine his life. After a few years of training with Jürgen Seefelder and André Legros at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, he traveled to the Music Academy in Graz in 1987 to study jazz saxophone and improvisation with Charlie Miklin, Adelhard Roidinger and Carl Drewo. He stayed there for only two years. After meeting key figures like Jerry Bergonzi and David Liebman,
with his mentors Vincent Herring and Reggie Workman, who arranged for him a scholarship to the New School in New York, his long-cherished dream of moving to the capital of jazz to study there and with greats like Donald Byrd and Jaki Byard came true , Jeff Tain Watts, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Joey Calderazzo, Sam Rivers, Peter Bernstein, Joe Locke, Pete LaRoca, Roy Hargrove and many others. His silver trophy at the "American Music Fest" in San Francisco (1990) and participation in the renowned "Thelonious Monk" competition in Washington D.C. the following year also pave the way for him in the promised land.
Back in Germany, Johannes Enders quickly established himself as one of the most important voices on tenor saxophone and was signed by the renowned jazz label ENJA Records. Here he founded his own projects such as his acoustic quartet, his saxophone quartet ZeitGeistMaschine and the duos with jazz legend Günter Baby Sommer or with Rainer Böhm as well as his electro-jazz projects Enders Room and Enders Dome. For his immense creative output, he has received awards over the years, e.g. with the Austrian Jazz Prize, the Cultural Promotion Prize for Music from the City of Munich, the SWR Jazz Prize,
the Weilheim Culture Prize, the New German Jazz Prize, the Jazz Echo 2012, the German Music Author Prize and the Bavarian State Promotion Prize. As a sought-after sideman in bands such as The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio, Billy Hart European Quintet, Günther Baby Sommers Quartet Süd, Rainer Böhm/Johannes Enders Duo, Franco Ambrosetti Quartet, Karl Ratzer Quintet and many more. a. he has meanwhile played in all important clubs and festivals and immortalized himself on over 100 studio recordings to date.
