Frank Gratkowski
Frank Gratkowski was born in Hamburg in 1963 and studied at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. He has extended his instrumental skills to include almost the entire spectrum of woodwind instruments, including flutes. He works intensively on tonal extensions and modifications of his instruments in solo projects and small formations using unorthodox playing techniques and microtonal concepts, some of which he has developed himself. As a bandleader and composer, he traverses the broad context of contemporary improvised music. There is no clear distinction between composition and improvisation in his work.
Under his own name, Frank Gratkowski has released around 50 CDs, as a sideman he has been involved in an unknown number of additional productions. In 2005 he received the prestigious SWR Jazz Prize.
Frank Gratkowski lives in Berlin. He has taught at conservatories in Arnhem, Hanover, Berlin and currently Cologne, and has extensive international experience as a university lecturer and workshop leader.
