FROM BACH TO BONANZA
FROM VIRTUOS TO MERCY
PIANO - DRUMS & SOUNDS
HOLGER MANTEY
With an entire musical cosmos in the head.
Piano, various drums, handpans, and a good dose of entertainment join together in Mantey's works to create a playground in which the audience is invited enter into a space of artistic fantasy.
Brief description of this program
From Bach to Bonanza – virtuoso and versatility
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From Bach to Bonanza – virtuoso and versatility
"An entire musical cosmos in one head" wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurt General Newspaper)/FAZ about Holger Mantey after the pianist's solo-concert in the studio of the Hessischer Rundfunk (Hesse Broadcasting).
Indeed, Mantey's repertoire leaves no wish unanswered when it comes to variety and versatility.
A concert with him is no dry piano recital. Mantey's instrument, the grand piano, is joined by drums, beatbox, "chord boards," handpans, castanets, and others to dress his congenial distortions of famous works across musical epochs in a new and often surprising gown. This is not only hilarious, but also musically highly delectable and challenging.
Thus, with Mantey's musical interpretations ranging from Mozart to Gershwin and from Bach to Bonanza, you can expect many different things except for one: that you will ever get bored.
"Mantey is a virtuoso whose head is filled unexpected mental leaps," writes the FAZ, which the musician, who has performed concerts across 21 countries around the world, proves in his own pieces, as well. He has performed with notable musicians in various line-ups, in which his solos always take a special place.
Holger Mantey PIANO-DRUMS & SOUNDS
HOLGER MANTEY pianist/composer
From 1980 to 1985, Mantey completed a classical piano programme at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin in the class of Professor Heinz Zimbehl and Sonja Großmann.
1987 is the year of his risky escape from East Germany to West Germany. Mantey went to Cologne and began to make a name for himself as a soloist.
Numerous concert performances led him to many international stages and festivals both inside and outside his home country, including to New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Poggibonsi, Valladolid, Perugia, Lissabon, Osaka, St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Ankara, and Izmir. He has performed at most of the big German festivals (Deutsches Jazzfestival in Frankfurt, Leverkusener Jazztage in Leverkusen, Kölner Jazzhausfestival in Cologne, Jazzfestival Ost-West in Nuremberg, and Kempener Jazzfrühling in Kempen to name but a few).
The pianist makes appearances on radio and television broadcasts on the Hessischer Rundfunk (Hesse Broadcasting), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Broadcasting), Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German Broadcasting), 3SAT, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting), Deutschlandfunk (German Broadcasting), Saarländischer Rundfunk (Saarland Broadcasting), Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Central German Broadcasting), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting), Livestyle, Inspirationen, Trends (Lifestyle, Inspirations, Trends), and Radiotelevisione Italiana.
Concert tours took him to the following countries: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Guinea, Mauritius, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Lithuania, Russia, Senegal, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (many in collaboration with the Goethe Institute).