Reinventing the cello - Susanne Paul’s music effortlessly blends various influences and usually involves groove and improvisation.

Her colorful musical language grows out of her explorations of diverse musical styles: Straight Jazz, Brazilian music, Baroque music, Trash Pop, Tango and Flamenco shape her playing, along with the classical music of her childhood and the punk rock of her teens. In her hands, the 5-string cello turns into a veritable chord, bass, rhythm, and melody instrument.

Growing up in Southern California and Northern Germany in a music-loving German-Mexican family, her polyglot musical curiosity grew naturally. She studied in Berlin and Moscow and spent longer periods of time in Prague and Rio de Janeiro. She performs, composes and arranges in various bands and for theater, and teaches Jazz Cello at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria and at the UdK (Univerity of Arts) in Berlin, Germany.

Her 5-string cello was made by Burkhard Eickhoff, München

Her bows are by Anja Clara Kraft, Wismar (who also takes care of sound maintenance) and by Gustavo Rubin, Buenos Aires.

Her 6-string electric cello is by Ned Steinberger.

Her Surfmaster electric guitar was made by Nick Page

Presse

  • „earsplittingly beautiful,… rousing, sparkling playing" - RBB Kulturradio, 2009
  • „fabulously flexible cellist" - Weserkurier, 7.3.2015
  • „playful, musically intelligent and imaginative“ - SWR2, 26.1.2016
„Susanne Paul masters her instrument like no other…SP can replace an entire orchestra: she plucks, caresses, bows, knocks and pounds - and extracts sounds that you never knew were at home in this instrument. They live on the fingerboard or in the corpus and sound like a violin, guitar oder drum, and sometimes even like a cello.“ - Frankenpost, 19.10.2015
„The cello in Susanne Paul’s hands alternately morphs into a grooving watchamacallit, into a flamenco guitar or into an experimental soundbox.“ - NWZ, 19.7.2018
„…this cello on which everything seems possible: muscular chords, hammering staccato, wistful melodies, percussive accompaniment and peculiar noises.“  - NOZ, 7.3.2015

References

Concerts

i.a. ElbJazz Festival Hamburg, Jazzfest Bonn, New Directions Cello Festival, FolkBaltica, Beogradski Jazz Festival, Ruhrfestspiele, ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein-Musikfestival, Bregenzer Festspiele, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Mawazine Festival Rabat, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Donaueschinger Tage für Neue Musik, Konzerthaus Wien, Zermatt Music Festival, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, and in Japan, China, Marocco, Bulgaria, Finnland, Argentina, Chile, Serbia, Brazil, Ireland, France, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Switzerland. She has collaborated with various Goethe Institutes, Radio & TV stations (DLF, NDR, BR, RBB, SWR, WDR, Radio Maroc, Bulgarian TV, Serbian TV). 

Teaching

Her teaching activity centers on  Jazz, Rock and Tango for strings as well as improvisation and groove.

Since 1998, Susanne Paul has lectured and taught countless workshops, orchestra courses and teacher trainings on jazz/rock/tango and improvisation for string players in German, English, French and Spanish:

Workshops & Masterclasses:

In many communal music schools (Germany, Denmark & Austria), the AMJ (Arbeitskreis Musik in der Jugend), with Jeunesse Musicale, the AfS (Arbeitskreis für Schulmusik), Kreativ-Orchester at the ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg (since 2017)

Orchestra Courses:

With the Deutsches Musikschulorchester, Akademie für Musikpädagogik (2X), Landesmusikakademie Sachsen-Anhalt (5X), WMK Wiesbaden, LMA Baden-Württemberg

University Teaching:

Anton Bruckner University Linz (Austria) since 2012, SDMK Esbjerg (DK) 2016-18), UdK (University of Arts) Berlin since 2020

Teacher Training for teachers and university students:

Bundesmusikakademie Trossingen (3X), Hochschule für Musik Basel, MSK Zürich, Konservatorium Bern, Musikschulmanagement Niederösterreich (4X), Musikschule Wien (2X), Landesmusikschulwerk Oberösterreich (2X), Musikum Salzburg, Tyrol, Musikschulwerk Burgenland, Landesmusikakademie Berlin (2X), LMA Baden-Württemberg, Landesverband der Musikschulen Brandenburg, LMA Nordrhein-Westfalen and LMA Sachsen-Anhalt, VDM Hessen, Sächsischer Streichertag, Konservaturium Zwickau, University of Oldenburg, Bruckner University Linz, UdK (University of Arts) Berlin, JIB Berlin (Jazz Institute Berlin)

Lectures:

VdM Congresses (Association of German Music Schools) in 2003, 2005 & 2009, University of Hildesheim, Goethe Institute Rabat (Morocco), European ESTA Conferences 2002, 2014 & 2015, Swedish ESTA Congress 2017

Publications & CD/LP/DVD

Pieces and arrangements for solo cello, duo, trio and string orchestra, string quartet & quintet

Groovy Strings – Rhythmus & Groove im Streichunterricht – 26 easy to intermediate jazz pieces for string ensemble with teachers‘ handbook on basics and methods (in German) – Together with N. Kruse, J. Piezunka und M. Rutledge, with CD-ROM, Breitkopf und Härtel (2009)

Just Doodling for cello solo, Ponticello-Edition (2013)

Groovestrich-Schule, Ponticello-Edition (Frühjahr 2015)

Tango-Ševčík, 13 tango etudes and 3 concert pieces, available for cello or violin

Soon: Hühnchen („little chicken“), chopping tune for cello solo, Ponticello-Edition (fall 2020)

2018 CD Short Stories, Susanne Paul’s MOVE String Quartet, Jazz Haus Musik

2018 CD Canto, Daniel Stawinski’s KammerJazz Kollektiv, a-jazz Label

2018 CD Passo Interiore, Etta Scollo & Band, jazzhaus records

2016 CD Ugurel & Strings, unit records

2015 CD Tempo al Tempo, Scollo con Cello, jazzhaus records

2014 CD Composers‘ Orchestra Berlin, Jazz Haus Musik

2014 CD Lunaria, Etta Scollo & Band, jazzhaus records

2014 CD Spazieren in Berlin, Composers‘ Orchestra Berlin & Sebastian Weber, Buchfunk Verlag

2013 CD El Camino, Susanne Paul’s MOVE Quartet, Jazz Haus Musik

2013 CD Elf Elfen Blues, Uwe Kropinski Trio, Jazzwerkstatt

2012 CD Flugenten, Schwarz un Schmitz, Traumton

2012 CD Parores + Neores, Ganes, Blankomusic

2012 CD Pousse Blues Waltz, Cathrin Pfeifer, Galileo MC

2011 CD Legends of Panipur, Indigo Masala, Jigit! Records

2010 CD Brein’s World, Georg Breinschmid & Friends, Preiser Records Vienna

2010 DVD Georg Breinschmid Live, Georg Breinschmid & Friends, Zappel Music

2010 CD Anchorsongs, Ficus and the Device, woAnderland records

2008 CD Big Gods and Little Animals, Indigo Masala, Jigit! Records

2008 CD Tanger Sessions, Dissidenten & Jil Jilala, Exil Records

2003 CD Scooter, String Thing, MicNic Records

1999 CD Turtifix, String Thing, MicNic Records

1989 LP First Spells, Clockwork Wizards, Anaconda Records

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