Leo Ornstein | en

Leo Ornstein (ca. December 2, 1893 – February 24, 2002), born in Ukraine (then a part of pre-Soviet Imperial Russia), was one of the leading American experimental composers and pianists of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and even shocking pieces made him a cause célèbre on both sides of the Atlantic. Ornstein was the first important composer to make extensive use of the tone cluster. As a pianist, he was considered a world-class talent. By the mid-1920s, he had walked away from his fame and soon disappeared from popular memory....

Saxophonist, composer and producer Michael Hornstein is, in the words of the news magazine "Der Spiegel" "one of the outstanding representatives of contemporary European jazz...". Born in 1962, he started playing the piano at the age of 10, and then saxophone at 14. First self-taught under the influence of Charlie Parker, he later studied music at the university for music and interpretative arts in Graz, Austria from 1979 to 1982 and received a scholarship for Berklee College/USA in 1983. In his recorded works one finds flavors of jazz, drum and bass, trip hop & electronic music. www.michaelhornstein.de .