Olivia Trummer (*1985 in Stuttgart, Germany) hails from a musicians' family. She started studying classical piano at age 4 and soon became passionate about improvising and composing as well. She eventually studied both jazz piano and classical piano at the University of Music in Stuttgart, graduating with distinction in both. Equipped with a full scholarship of the DAAD, she went on to pursue a Master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. The formative years spent in in the jazz metropole alongside with her deep connection to Classical music serve as ongoing sources of inspiration within her own musical universe.

Originally starting out as a pianist and composer, it wasn’t until in her twenties that Olivia started to identify with the role of a singer. This metamorphosis also displays in her discography that spans 9 albums to date, with all of them featuring her original music: After two acclaimed purely instrumental albums, Nach Norden and Westwind, she started to emerge as a vocalist and songwriter / lyricist, releasing Nobody Knows in 2010. Soon after, she followed up with another surprise, releasing Poesiealbum (2011), an album containing her original cabaret-infused jazz songs in German, receiving great reviews from the press. 2012 she moved to Berlin and started to divide her time between the vibrant German capital and, again, New York City, focusing on her songwriting while inviting chance encounters. This period of creative oscillation found its expression in her album Fly Now, recorded in New York with Matt Penman, Obed Calvaire and special guest Kurt Rosenwinkel. It was released in 2014 and received much praise from the international audience and press, particularly in the UK. On her following, mostly instrumental album Classical To Jazz - One (2015), Olivia connected with her Classical roots, interpreting and re-imagining works by J.S.Bach and W.A.Mozart in duo with Swiss vibraphonist Jean-Lou Treboux. Designed to become a series of projects, „Classical to Jazz“ continued in 2017: Commissioned by the Women in Jazz Festival and the Händel Festival Halle, Olivia composed a full-length concert program for quintet, entitled „Rejoyce, rejazz!“, reflecting Händel’s „Messiah“ from a jazz composer’s perspective.

In 2018, Olivia participated in the analogue recording series „Studiokonzert“ at the Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg where her solo concert on piano, Fender Rhodes and vocals was captured live on direct-totwo track tape. The resulting vinyl album Studiokonzert: Olivia Trummer paved the way to a series of solo concerts and allowed Olivia to discover this format as one of her favorite situations on stage, allowing her the freedom to express her full versatility. 2019 saw the release of another duo album, The Hawk, co-lead by Israel-born and New-York-based flutist Hadar Noiberg. The album was recorded live at one of the duo’s first concerts and contains mostly original, instrumental compositions. That same year, Olivia was invited to appear at the Opening Ceremony of the Beethoven Year, performing the Choral Fantasy op.80 with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno at the Opera in Bonn as a soloist on piano. Opening the piece with a freely improvised cadenza, she demonstrated her ability to bridge the gap between jazz, classical and improvised music once more.

Olivia’s touring schedule has increased significantly since 2016 when she started to play with Kurt Rosenwinkel as a singer and pianist of his „Caipi“ project. The band has performed over 50 concerts at top venues and festivals all around the globe and continues to appear live on stage (most recently with the Danish Radio Bigband playing the music of „Caipi“ under the baton of Miho Hazama in Denmark). Since then, Olivia has found back to a lifestyle of creative oscillation, this time commuting between Berlin and Italy where she found a new artistic home for her music. Her trio currently features two Italian musicians: Nicola Angelucci on drums and Rosario Bonaccorso on bass. Further Italian collaborations include Fabrizio Bosso, Mario Biondi, Gabriele Mirabassi and Max Ionata. Olivia’s 9th album For You was released on March 4th, 2022 and marks her debut for the Warner Music Italy label. It is comprised of a series of new songs about integrity and courage and includes Kurt Rosenwinkel and Fabrizio Bosso as special guests.

AWARDS (SELECTION):

2019 Jazz Award Baden-Württemberg
2015 „Artist to look out for“ / jazzwise magazine
2014 Jazz Award Ingolstadt
2013-2016 stArt artist Bayer Kultur, Leverkusen
2010 scholarship of Bruno Frey Foundation and of the Art Foundation Baden-Württemberg
2008-2009 scholarship of German Academic Exchange Service
2008 Quarterly Critic’s Choice List 3/2008 for Westwind
2008 2nd Prize of International Piano Competition „Palma D’Oro“ in Finale Ligure, Italy
1999-2003 five national prizes at „Jugend Musiziert“, among which two 1st prizes

AS A LEADER / CO-LEADER

FOR YOU (WARNER MUSIC / 2022)
THE HAWK (FLAVOREDTUNE / 2019)
STUDIOKONZERT: OLIVIA TRUMMER (NEUKLANG / 2018)
CLASSICAL TO JAZZ ONE - FEAT. JEAN-LOU TREBOUX (NEUKLANG / 2015)
FLY NOW (CONTEMPLATE / 2014)
POESIEALBUM (NEUKLANG / 2011)
NOBODY KNOWS (NEUKLANG / 2010)
WESTWIND (NEUKLANG / 2008)
NACH NORDEN (NEUKLANG / 2006)

AS A SIDE MUSICIAN / GUEST

CHANGES - Nicola Angelucci (Warner Music / 2021)
PARIS - Marit Beyer und Olivia Trummer (Der DiwanHörbuchverlag / 2021)
DARE - Mario Biondi (Sony Music / 2021)
INFUSION - Jazzchor Freiburg (Jazzhaus Records / 2019)
FOLKSONGS II - East Drive (Neuklang / 2013)
FOLKSONGS I - East Drive (Neuklang / 2011)

VENUE & FESTIVAL REFERENCES

Carnegie Hall (NYC), Konzerthaus (Berlin), Oper (Bonn), „Porgy & Bess" (Vienna), „National Concert
Hall“ (Dublin), „Birdland Jazzclub“ (New York), Blue Note (Tokyo and Beijing), New Morning (Paris), Teatro Capovolto (Trento) „Montreux Jazz Festival“, „Jazz Fest London“, „Galway Jazz Festival“, "Vancouver Jazz Festival“, „Montréal Jazz Festival“, „Fränkischer Sommer“, „Ludwigsburg Festival“, „Jazz Open Stuttgart“, „Jazzfest Bonn“, „Jazz Open Hamburg“, „International Jazz Summer Augsburg“, „Bachfest Ansbach“

COLLABORATIONS

Kurt Rosenwinkel, Matt Penman, Obed Calvaire, Fabrizio Bosso, Jimmy Cobb, Bobby McFerrin, NDR
Bigband, Tim Garland, Gerard Presencer, Phil Donkin, Bodek Janke, Hadar Noiberg, Jean-Lou Treboux,
Johannes Lauer, Matthias Schriefl, Martin Gjakonovski, Joel Locher, Antonio Miguel, Nicole Johänntgen,
Nicola Angelucci, Rosario Bonaccorso.