Nicolai Thärichen

NICOLAI THÄRICHEN
Pianist, Composer, Arranger
Nicolai Thärichen, born on December 12, 1969 in Berlin/Germany, studied piano at the Jazz-department of the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin with Walter Norris, Aki Takase, Kirk Nurock, David Friedman, Denney Goddhew and others.
2000-02 he extended his studies at the University of the Arts with Hubert Nuß and Jim McNeely (piano), and with Jim Knapp and Maria Schneider (composition and arrangement).
He composed und arranged for the German Youth Jazzorchestra (BuJazzo), for the Jazzorchestra of the UdK Berlin with Maria Schneider and Bobby McFerrin, for the Berlin Youth Jazzorchestra and first and foremost for his own band „Thärichens Tentett“.
Since 1993 Nicolai has been working with the singer Michael Schiefel, with whom he founded the band "Thärichens Tentett" in 1999. This ten-piece-band performs his original compositions, mostly songs set on poems by artists like Dorothy Parker, Lord Byron, Thomas Hardy and Ronald D. Laing.
Since its formation, 'the creme of Berlin's young Jazz scene’ (Berliner Tagesspiegel) around Nicolai Thärichen has published three CD´s, its debut “Lady Moon” (2001 Minor Music) was soon labelled 'excellent' (Jazzthing), 'this year's most stunning German record’ (Die Welt) or 'the embodiment of 21st century jazz' (jazzlabel.de) by the critics.
As is generally known there is a fine line between good and bad, genius and madness. “The Thin Edge”, the group's second album, cheerfully and virtuously moves along this imaginary line which is rather conceptualised as a transcendable threshold than a closed-off border. The ensemble plays its 12 original compositions equally sensational and sensible, recklessly swinging as well as calmly swaying. ‘You can tell that we have been playing together a lot’, explains Thärichen the group’s brilliance. In their music, the tentet fuses numerous musical inspirations from Bill to Gil Evans, from swing, bebop and punk, pop, art song and country swing, chamber music and bossa nova into a seriously entertaining, seemingly homogeneous but at the same time deeply heterogeneous perfection.
The tentet’s latest CD “Grateful” (Minor Music) is dedicated to its main lyricist, the Scottish psychiatrist Ronald D. Laing. It was released in November 2005 and received rave reviews:
'Thärichen's Tentett delivers the most felicitous compositions, the most polished arrangements, as well as the most humorous presentation of all larger German jazz groups. Last but not least because of Michael Schiefel’s performance, Germany’s most talented contemporary Jazz singer.’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Their DVD “Live at A-Trane” appeared in 2006.
Since 1998 Nicolai has been teaching piano at „ Hanns Eisler Conservatory Of Music" in Berlin, piano and theory at the „Berliner Landesmusikakademie“ and since 2003 Jazz-arrangement at the University of the Arts (Universität der Künste) in Berlin.
2004-2005 he conducted the Berlin Youth Jazzorchestra (BJJO), and toured to Los Angeles with his own bigband-program in 2005. In the same year he taught composition and performed his music with the bigband of the Conservatory Of Music and Theatre in Hannover.
Since 2006 he has been teaching piano and arrangement at the „Jazz Institute Berlin“ (JIB) and composition, arrangement and theory at the "Franz Liszt Conservatory Of Music" in Weimar.