Born: October 25, 1974 Primary Instrument: Saxophone
KATJA ENDEMANN just released her latest CD “Black Box” featuring her compositions. Daniela Schaechter accompanies her on piano, Marco Panascia on bass and the internationally acclaimed Tony Moreno on the drums. Katja Endemann has been performing with the New York based female big band “Diva” directed by Sherrie Maricle, rated one of the world’s best big bands by Down Beat Magazine. She became a member of the international hip hop band “Redheadphone” and recently joined the Off Broadway theater production “Any Minute Now” as woodwind player.
Katja Endemann was born in Munich, Germany, where she began her musical career as a saxophonist, flutist and composer. She founded her own group “Katja Endemann Quartet” in 1997 as soloist and composer, they perform throughout Germany and the Netherlands. In Europe, Katja studied saxophone and composition at the Richard-Strauss Conservatory (Munich), the Sweelinck Conservatory (Amsterdam).
Katja performed with famous musicians including Russell Ferrante (Yellowjackets), David Foster (14 Grammys), George Garzone and Dave Santoro (Dave Liebman group). She was a recipient of the Charlie Parker Award for outstanding musicianship and graduated from Berklee College of Music (Boston) summa cum laude.
Later Katja graduated from New York University with a Masters degree in performance and composition, with a concentration in film music. She was selected for the ASCAP Film Scoring Seminar in 2003, where she recorded her composition piece for orchestra, with musicians of the NY Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera.
In the same year Katja scored the music for the short film documentary Where the Girls Are that won the Audience Award at the LA Outfest Film Festival. In 2004 she became a finalist of the Sundance Film Scoring Fellowship in California.
Katja Endemann performs throughout Europe and the USA at famous venues, including Bachzaal, Bimhuis (Netherlands), Gasteig (Germany), Knitting Factory, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center and Blue Note. She played at the 2004 International Association for Jazz Educator (IAJE) convention in NYC featuring Lenny Pickett (Saturday Night Live) and Teo Macero (producer of Miles Davis), who dedicated his composition Like Spring Blues to her.
