Volker Jaekel

Volker Jaekel is a pianist, organist, choir director, and composer based in Berlin.

From 1982 to 1988, he completed his master’s degree in Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Halle (Saale), studying under Michael Pohl (organ), Volker Bräutigam (improvisation), and Georg Christoph Biller (choral conducting). From 1990 to 1992, he earned his degree in Conducting at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar under the tutelage of Hans-Jörg Leipold.

He worked from 1988 to 1993 as an organist in Gräfenthal, Thuringia, after which he began working as an independent pianist, organist, and composer in Dresden and Cologne. He received additional instruction in jazz piano from Aki Takase and Reggie Moore in Berlin.

In 1995, he began giving frequent concerts for piano and organ in a variety of multicultural projects, which he continues to this day. Some examples of his projects include his world music trio SPACE OF COLOURS with Itacyr Brocato (trombone) and Tunji Beier (South Indian percussion); LICHTPIANO, a multimedia project with painter Matthias Bolz; TANZ und ORGEL with dancer Iris South; the BERLINER ORGANIST DUO with Elke Schneider; and the duo JAEKEL & MORITZ. He has toured and given concerts in Europe, Brazil, India, Vietnam, Japan, Australia, Egypt, and Russia.

Volker Jaekel’s trio SPACE OF COLOURS gives expression to his vision of cross-genre music – weaving together jazz, classical, and world music to form a new, colorful fabric of sound.

In addition to his ongoing work in composition and performance, Volker Jaekel has also been the musical director at Nicodemus in the Neukölln district of Berlin since 2006. He is the conductor of the choir at Nikodemus (art.nikodemus-berlin.de) and co-directs the Prenzlberger Singvögel choir together with Elke Schneider (www.  prenzlberger- singvoegel.  com).6

His most recent projects include solo piano concerts, concerts as part of his duo with Gert Anklam (saxophone) as well as a project with singer and percussionist Jule Unterspann.