Cologne-based Bernd Kaftan, pianist, keyboarder, composer, arranger, started playing the piano at 7, grew up and fell in love with Jazz, with the Blues, with theater, studied at the University of Cologne to become a music teacher; continued and still continues to learn in workshops from e.g. the Roy Hart Theatre (France), or HUW Warren. His versatility has put him in quite a number of different contexts: from playing the keyboards in the Blues/Rock-Band „Viva La Diva“ (CDs: „Schön, geil und liebenswert“ and „Ich will dich“, compilations „Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander“ and „Pänz un Bänds un Rock un Roll“) to being a singer in the jazz a cappella group „Sunny Side Up“. His persistent love for singing manifests itself in his activity as leader of various Pop and Jazz choirs. As a pianist and keyboard player, he has worked as accompanist for comedian Stefan Wald, actor/singer Paul Silber and actress/singer Biggi Wanninger and is, along with singer-songwriter Anne Hartkamp, bassist André Nendza and drummer Fritz Wittek, a member of the band hartkamp (http://www.hartkamp.net) which features original songs (CDs: „hartkamp“, „glücklich“). A strong focus of his work is composing and playing for the theatre and for radio plays: he has written and produced comissioned pieces for the WDR radio network (program “Bärenbudeâ€, et al.), appeared as keyboarder, arranger and musical leader with the „Nervous Wrecks“ Vaudeville show, participated in the special radio play theatre VOHRsicht (with Frank Köllges, Udo Moll, Stefan Döring, Gregor Höppner, Kerstin Kallewege et al.), and works as composer, pianist/keyboarder and sometimes actor with the N.N. Theater – Neue Volksbühne (www.nntheater.de) (winner of the audience prize at the “XI. Internationales Wandertheaterfestival Radebeulâ€) and aa–acting accomplices. In 2006, his scoring of M.L.Weissmann’s poem “Die Katzen†was awarded the first prize in the competition of 100dichterinnen.de.
Layout Created at KillerKiwi.net
