German Embassy announces tête-à-tête jazz concert
The German Embassy will present a jazz concert under the heading ‘Tête-à-tête’ by German musicians Stefan Bauer and Michael Heupel.
‘Tête-à-tête’ refers to an informal lighthearted conversation between two people, especially friends, which vibraphonist Bauer and flutist Heupel will reflect musically in their performance.
The concert will take place at the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek along Church Street on 17 June 2023, starting at 19h00. Entrance is free. It is the first time that the two musicians will be performing in Namibia in their only public performance.
Bauer is active as both an instrumentalist and a composter in a wide musical field between tradition and avant-garde. His travels all over the world have resulted in 12 albums that have so far been released under his name.
Highlights of his travels include concerts with Dou Dou N’Diaye Rose in Dakar, Senegal; Aly Keïta in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Bernard Woma in Akkra, Ghana; T.A.S. and Rama Mani in Bangalore; India, Kenny Wheeler in Winnipeg, Canada; concerts in Portugal and Spain with Christoph Haberer and Ramesh Shotham; with Adam Nussbaum, Mick Goodrick in Montreal, Canada, and with Karolina Strassmayer in New York – to name just a few.
For decades now, Bauer has been part of Germany’s jazz scene as well as New York’s, his home of 22 years. His current main focus is his duo with multi-flutist Heupel and promoting their outstanding live-CD têteà-tête, the Brooklyn-based Relative Motion Trio (David B i n d m a n - sax/fl, Michael Sarin – dr, Bauer – marimba) and his five-piece ensemble of many years, VOYAGE.
Heupel was born in Bonn, Germany and studied flute at the ‘Hochschule für Musik Köln’. His main activity is improvised music and jazz music. With his solo programme, ‘Flute News’ (containing original compositions only), he played at the festivals of Montreal and Toronto, as well as in NY, Chicago Philadelphia, Boston and some other East Coast cities in America. With his own Jazz Quartet, he played a concert tour in Australia and New Zealand for the GoetheInstitut. In Africa, he played eight times with different ensembles, including duo tours with guitar player Uwe Kropinski in east Africa and west Africa with Bauer. He has also performed flute solo concerts in Khartoum, Sudan. With the ‘Pata Masters’ of Norbert Stein, he did numerous tours to Brasilia, Australia, India, Indonesia and Morocco.
Heupel has been teaching at the musical high schools of Köln and Düsseldorf, and has held workshops at several music academies in Europe.