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Martin Reiter was born in Vienna in 1978. He spent his childhood in Upper Austria where he grew up with piano and saxophone lessons as the son of enthusiastic amateur musicians.
In 1996, Reiter began studying jazz piano at what is now the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. A year later he switched to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where, in the course of an arrangers workshop, he met Mathias Rüegg from the Vienna Art Orchestra who recognized Reiter’s qualities as a pianist and arranger. He launched his first serious music project in 1999 together with the singer Simone Kopmajer --- her quartet took both of them later, among other places, on a tour to the USA where they performed with guests like Turk Mauro and Ira Sullivan.
Reiter was given an Austrian scholarship to study at a foreign college of art in 2001, which made it possible for him to spend a year at the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag studying with
Rob van Kreefeld. In Holland, Reiter formed his second important ensemble together with drummer Klemens Marktl, the Slovenian saxophonist Jure Pukl and the Dutchman Rodrigo Reijers on bass.
In 2002, Reiter was given the “Austrian Young Lions“ award --- a prize for a talented young musician who would then be sent on a European tour. As a result, Reiter played in his early years at nine major jazz festivals including Montreux, Perugia, Pori, Molde, etc. In the same year he was awarded the HANS KOLLER PRIZE in the category “NYC-Scholarship.“
Before he could use the prize money in 2003 to spend several months in NYC, Alex Deutsch
grabbed him for the band of the exceptional Swiss trumpeter Matthieu Michel. The result of a two-week gig in Vevey on Lake Geneva was the album live at Theatre Oriental, together with Peter Herbert. Immediately thereafter Reiter flew to NYC, where he met musicians, went to sessions and took private lessons with prominent jazzers like Bill Charlap, Bruce Barth or Fred Hersch. All of the compositions on his debut album Chez es Saada sprung from this highly inspired period.
Back in Vienna, Reiter devoted himself intensely to his music studies and strengthened his contacts to the national and international scene. Following a small tour with Bennie Maupin and John B. Williams, Reiter recorded Chez es Saada in the summer of 2004. Intense collaboration with the chamber orchestra Feuerhaus made it possible for him to realize one of his own compositions for Fender Rhodes and Chamber Orchestra, which was also included on the CD. At that time Reiter launched the project Rache für Mozart (Revenge for Mozart), together with the orchestra under the direction of Hans Peter Manser, in which he improvised - totally in the spirit of Mozart - on the great piano concerto in C major, KV 503.
2005 stood entirely in the glow of the release of Chez es Saada --- the album attracted wide interest not only in Austria and opened some doors for Reiter. In the same year, he was awarded yet again the HANS KOLLER PRIZE, this time in the category Newcomer of the Year.
In 2006, he could finally conclude his music studies and was then able to devote himself entirely to his activities as a freelance artist. In the same year Reiter could be on stage with musicians like Alegre Correa, Ana Paula da Silva and Michael Mantler and present his Mozart project at the Carinthian Summer --- a well-known classical music festival in southern Austria. Meanwhile the preparations for recording his new album were in full swing.
At the moment Reiter’s focus is in Vienna although NYC has not totally let goof him since his first stay there. Every year he spends several weeks in the Big Apple whereby in 2004, for example, the Slovenian tenorist Jure Pukl’s album Serendipity was born, with guests like Jamire Williams and Jeremy Pelt. If Reiter is not playing concerts then he devotes himself to his arranging and composing, as at the moment for the Austrian actress and singer Marianne Mendt, e.g.
His main projects in 2007 will feature Ana Paula da Silva, a great brazilian singer among great side men like Matthias Pichler (bass), Peter Kronreif (drums) and Juan Garcia Herreros (bass). Besides Martin Reiter is working a lot with his "electric trio" RANDOM, a band he founded in 2001 together with Electric Bass Player Jojo Lackner.
AWARDS
2002 First place winner, Austrian Young Lions competition. Performances in nine major European jazz festivals, including North Sea, Montreux, Umbria, and Istanbul.
2002 Hans Koller Award, category New York Scholarship
2003 Finalist in BJO´s (Brussels Jazz Orchestra) International Composers Competition
2005 HANS KOLLER PRICE Category Newcomer of the year
2005 JAZZZEIT Readers Poll Award
MARTIN REITER TRIO feat. Matthieu Michel live @ Porgy and Bess, CHEZ ES SAADA - CD Release Concert, February 11th 2005:
Video from the ALMA CD-Release Concert, Sept. 21st 2007: "PHENOMENON"
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