Julia Hülsmann

Julia Hülsmann was born in 1968 in Bonn and comes from a musical background. She began taking classical piano lessons at the age of eleven and started her first band at the age of sixteen. In 1991, she moved to Berlin to study Jazz Piano at the University of the Arts (HdK) with Walter Norris, Aki Takase, Sigi Busch, David Friedman, Jerry Granelli, and Kirk Nurock. During her studies, she had the opportunity to attend workshops with renowned artists such as Bill Dobbins, Mathias Rüegg, John Taylor, Anthony Cox, and Jane Ira Bloom. In 1992, Hülsmann joined the German Youth Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO), which was then led by Peter Herbolzheimer. She graduated in 1996 with a dissertation titled “Do We Have to Sound Differently? The Self-Image of Female Jazz Pianists.” Since 1997, Julia Hülsmann has been performing with her own trio, playing in clubs and festivals all across Germany. In late 2000, she released her debut album “Hülsmann, Muellbauer, Winch: Trio” (BIT). In 1999, she received a grant from the Berlin Senate, enabling her to finance a stay in New York in early 2000, during which she took lessons with Richie Beirach, Maria Schneider, Gil Goldstein, and Jane Ira Bloom. While in New York, she also met singer Rebekka Bakken, leading to a collaboration that resulted in the release of “Scattering Poems” (ACT) in 2003, an album based on the poetry of E. E. Cummings. Selling over 10,000 copies, “Scattering Poems” won the German Jazz Award. In 2004, “Julia Hülsmann Trio with Anna Lauvergnac: Come Closer,” a project celebrating the music of Randy Newman, was released on ACT, followed by an extensive tour. Between 2003 and 2005, Hülsmann was a Dorothea Erxleben fellow at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover, during that time she composed the suite “Le Moustier” for string orchestra and piano. She lectured in Songwriting and Composition in Hanover from 2003 to 2012. In 2004, the Grabenfest in Vienna commissioned Julia Hülsmann to write a piece. The five-movement suite “Drei Farben Weiß” premiered in June 2004 in Vienna with singer and lyricist Anna Lauvergnac. In 2006, she released “Julia Hülsmann Trio with Roger Cicero: Good Morning Midnight” on ACT, again setting poetry to music, this time with texts by Emily Dickinson. In November 2007, the suite “Le Moustier” for piano trio and string quartet was first performed at the Berlin Jazzfest, with the Julia Hülsmann Trio joined by the Gerdur Gunnarsdottir String Quartet. In March 2008, the Trio, featuring Marc Muellbauer on bass and Heinrich Köbberling on drums, recorded “The End of a Summer” in Oslo, released in October 2008 as their first CD for ECM, produced by Manfred Eicher. In 2009, Julia Hülsmann and Meike Goosmann (saxophone) initiated a project with the BuJazzO, during which Hülsmann arranged “Drei Farben Weiß” for Big Band. In February 2009, the album “Marc Sinan/Julia Hülsmann: Fasìl” (featuring guitar, vocals, viola, piano, bass, drums), which includes music by Julia Hülsmann and texts by Marc Schiffer, was released on ECM. In April 2010, the Julia Hülsmann Trio was invited for the second time to perform at the German Jazz Meeting in Bremen, presenting their music to an international audience as part of the trade show jazzahead!. “Imprint,” the Trio’s second album for ECM, was recorded in Oslo in March 2010 and released in early 2011. In 2012, Hülsmann’s Trio was joined by English trumpeter and flugelhorn player Tom Arthurs, transforming it into the Julia Hülsmann Quartet. The group’s first album, “In Full View,” was released in spring 2013 on ECM. Early in 2012, Hülsmann, together with Felix Falk, started the JazzMusikerAufruf, an initiative supported by over 1,000 artists. Between 2012 and 2013, Hülsmann served as the first chairperson of the Union Deutscher Jazzmusiker. For 2014, Julia Hülsmann was named ‘Improviser in Residence’ in Moers. She currently teaches Jazz Piano at the University of the Arts in Berlin (UdK), as well as Songwriting and Composit