STEFAN KARL SCHMID
The German Icelander, Stefan Karl Schmid, studied as a Fulbright scholarship holder in the Master of Performance program of the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He received his Master of Music in jazz composition in 2010 at the HfM Cologne. Previously, he completed a music education and artistic studies at the University of Music in Nuremberg in the subject of jazz saxophone, which Schmid each graduated with honors and the Music Education Award for the best diploma of his year.
Schmid was a member of various national youth jazz orchestras and the Federal Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Peter Herbolzheimer, Bill Dobbins and Ed Partyka. With these orchestras as well as with his own projects he toured various countries of Europe, Asia and the USA. In addition to a dozen recordings as a sideman, he released his debut as a bandleader with the renowned label Double Moon in April 2012 with his “ExTENded” tantalum.
So far he has in different formations u. a. Michael Abene, Theo Bleckmann, Till Brönner, John Hollenbeck, Kristjan Järvi, Joe Lovano, Maceo Parker, Ack Van Rooyen, the HR and WDR Big Band worked together.
In addition to a number of awards as a composer and saxophonist, Schmid was awarded the Composition Prize of the German Jazz Orchestra in 2013, the Förderstipendium of the City of Cologne and the Jazz Prize of the City of Worms. Recently, Schmid was honored with the soloist prize of the “European Tremplin Jazz D’Avignon Contest 2014” in France.