Christoph Auer Group

Christoph Pepe Auer was born in 1981 in Tirol, Austria. He studied music from the age of 5. In 2001 he started attending the Music University in Graz to study saxophon-jazz. His teachers, during this time, were Florian Bramböck, Karl-Heinz Miklin, Heinrich von Kalnein and Klaus Dickbauer. He got his Bachelor of Arts in 2005 and now, Christoph is a Vienna-based saxophone player. He also got lessons from Dick Oatts, George Garzone, Donny McCaslin, Branford Marsalis, David Binney, Tony Malaby, Marcus Strickland, Jason Lindner and more. He performed with the musicians Adam Holzman (keyboard, Miles Davis Band), Joseph Bowie, David Murray as well as the Concert Jazz Orchestra Vienna. In 2005 he was sent as a representative of the University of Graz to the I.A.S.J. meeting directed by David Liebman. This influenced him to work more intensely on composition. In 2005 he received The Hans Koller Prize, which gave him the opportunity to travel to New York. There he took lessons from Tony Malaby, Donny McCaslin, Marcus Strickland and Branford Marsalis.

He is involved in numerous projects, some of which are „Living Room“, „The New York Sessions“, „Matthias Löscher Quartet“, „Stefan Heckel’s Dawn Chorus“, „Auer-Tiefenbacher-Kostron-Rainer/Smurfs Revenge“, „The Ringtones“ or „Phoen“. In all these projects, Christoph Pepe Auer shows his virtuosity at saxophone alto, soprano and tenor, clarinet, bassclarinet, flute and pepephon.
At PLAI he presented his own project – „Christoph Pepe Auer Group“, a project based on his compositions, which were inspired by Wayne Shorter, Kenny Wheeler, Jimmy Merritt and Ornette Coleman. The Group gets inspiration from anything, and any experience is transformed in a musical experience, any information acumulated by the five members is put into music in really ingenious ways. Alongside Christoph Pepe Auer we also met Manu Delago (hang, fx), Martin Reiter (piano), Matthias Pichler (bass) and Peter Kronreif (drums). Their music has crossed physical boundaries, since the cvartet was invited to sing in Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Kosovo, Polland, Germany, Jerusalem, Ciprus, Slovakia, Italy, New York, Sweden, Irland, Bulgaria, England and Scotland.

Christoph Pepe Auer Group opened the second day of PLAI 2009 and prepared a workshop for us on Sunday, but this time as a Trio: Pepe, Manu and Peter. Smelled like (very) talented spirit!

Awards:
2004 Jazzprice Biberach
2005 Hans Koller Price New York Scholarship
2005 Scholarship University of Music Graz
2005 Student representative of University of Music Graz at the IASJ Annual Jazzmeeting in Poland directed by David Liebman
2006 2nd Scholarship University of Music Graz

Discography:
2004 – Chillin´con Karma
2005 – Jazzit Stage Orchestra Vol.1
2005 – Christoph Pepe Auer Quartet – White Rain
2007 – Flip Philipp / Ed Partyka Dectet – Opium
2007 – Vienna Art Orchester – All That Strauss Vol. II
2007 – Matthias Löscher Quartet – VOX
2007 – Christoph Pepe Auer – The New York Sessions
2007 – Christoph Pepe Auer / Manu Delago – Living Room
2008 – Christoph Pepe Auer Quartet – The New York Sessions – LIVE

Web Resources:
www.christophauer.at
www.myspace.com/christophpepeauer