Digital Festival Zappanale 30,5

Playing at Zappanale festival in the summer of 2018 is still a very special memory to us – great weather, fantastic crowd and amazing vibes! You can revisit the festival this coming weekend, when this years digital edition of Zappanale takes place. Selected concerts of the past years will be streamed and put online for on demand viewing. For more information go to www.zappanale.de.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in the real world soon:)
Stay healthy and have fun with the online Zappanale!

Best, Monika and the Bigband

Fotocredits: Bernd Hentschel, Foto von Angela: Steffen Schindler

Sounds of former times…

Found this little snippet from our release concert 2016! Almost forgot what it’s like to play live with the big band! “Sounds of former times” (the piece is called “A Walk in the Park By Night”) – just what it feels like right now… I’m so looking forward when we can hit the road again! Keep your fingers crossed for the dates this fall!

Lockdown? Mixdown!

Dear friends, we hope you are all doing fine! It’s been some time since we posted anything, but we did continue working on our new album, time just flew by, all of a sudden it’s june, and the world is burning… Let’s stand together for a peaceful society and work towards a future where everybody can feel at home and at peace, with respect for humanity and nature!

We hope that we can play with the full line-up again soon, but as of now it looks like this still has to wait a little. But keep your fingers crossed!

Missing my band and you guys,
Stay healthy!
Monika

Big band in the Time of Corona

Dear friends,
our concert at the Philharmonie Munich was cancelled due to the Corona pandemic… as so many other concerts have been. This is a hard blow for us musicians, but we know how to handle rough times… I guess this is our lot;) If you want to support us you can buy a CD, Vinyl or bag at our shop.
Stay healthy!

PS: … and when we hit the road again, we’ll play even louder!;)

Concert on Saturday, 29 Feb 2020

On saturday we are playing at Evangelische Akademie Tutzing – the whole weekend there will be exciting debates and talks under the rubric “The Power of Women” with great guests, like journalist Mesale Tolu! We are excited to participate as musical guests!:)
Doors: 7 pm – Concert: 7:30 pm
(Foto: Emanuel Klempa)

Theatre: Woyzeck at Residenztheater Munich

Since its premiere on January 31 Woyzeck is playing at Residenztheater Munich!
The play is directed by Ulrich Rasche and I wrote its live music for bassoon, viola, grand piano, electronics, bass and drums. We have a band that’s really killing it: Alexander Maschke, Mariana Beleava, Josef Reßle, Tadiija Mincic, Heiko Jung and Fabian Löbhard! The cast is amazing too!
If you’d like to have your face melt away, come and watch!:)
Here you can find all scheduled performances.

2020: working on album number three!

Slow food music – or – slow and steady wins the race!:)
Here are some impressions from our last recording sessions. It’s coming together, it’s taking shape! I’m already excited and can’t wait to present you some new pieces, but you have to be patient a little more!

Happy new year to you all! ???

When I was little, I wanted to become a rock guitarist!:) … feels like yesterday! Back then, I didn’t think I could rock with a big band, too!

Nuremberg and Regensburg gigs: “Avantgarde rarely is this much fun”

Bigband cyborgess between “8 hallucinating princesses in phospohrescent galaxies” …

We played our final concert of 2019 in Regensburg and it was a special one – thanks to everyone who stopped by, it was our pleasure! Next year we’ll continue working on our new album and playing live for you! We’re looking forward to seeing you and wish you a wonderful transition into the new decade!

Few weeks earlier we played in Nuremberg, two song premieres in the repertoire! We were delighted that Peter Gruner at the Nuremberg newspaper seemed to have enjoyed it: “There is Monika Roscher in front of her 17-piece mammoth band, conducting an overwhelming sound that is so nimbly walking the tightrope between genius and madness, as if all this were nothing more than a sunday stroll.”
Photos: Martin Cseh and Jürgen Petroff

It’s on! Third album in the making! ?

In case you wondered why it has become somewhat quiet around us… it has been for a reason! During the last months I withdrew into my rehearsal room and now we moved into the studio – and we can’t wait to tackle our third album!
Here you can see some impressions from the recording process: Tom Friedrich, Ferdinand Roscher, Josef Reßle and Hannes Dieterle – live in action!

Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated with little bits here and there!

Award from the cultural department of Middle Franconia 2019! ?

Leaving your mobile switched off for once…
Strolling around in beautiful Franconia unsuspectingly and all of a sudden being congratulated for a an award – which I know nothing about yet. Fake news?? Mobile switched on again: fact! It’s true!:)
Thanks a lot to the cultural department of Middle Franconia for their award, such a pleasure!
(Photo: Emanuel Klempa)

DownBeat 2019 Rising Star Big Band

Dear friends, what an honour! We are listed among the 22 Rising Stars in the latest issue of DownBeat magazine!:)

Jazzfest Bonn and summer break

We had a wonderful time playing the closing concert at Jazzfest Bonn!
What an amazing audience, thanks for the fantastic night at the Telekom Forum! WDR will air a broadcast of our concert on TV, on June 28th at 1:25 AM – prime time, baby!;)

Now we are fully committing to our new album and make use of the summer break for writing, tinkering, rehearsing and conspiring.
We’ll keep you up to date!

Enjoy some sun,?

Monika and band

MRBB @ Lange Nacht der Musik Munich

It was a beautiful long night in Munich!
You can listen to some impressions (and also two pieces we’ve played) here: BR Sweet Spot did some live reporting!
See you soon, our next stop is at Jazzfest Bonn on May 31, come around!

Southern Germany Mini Tour

We had a blast on our mini tour through southern Germany:

Theaterhaus Jazztage Stuttgart and Veitsbronn, thanks for coming!

See you soon, we’re now tinkering with some new song material that we’re already looking forward to presenting to you!