Origin Records Artist Jonas Tauber

...a jaw-dropping night of improvised beauty...superb!
Laura Winter, Cadence

Jonas Tauber lives in Brooklyn, NY. A rather diverse musical path includes music in both classical and improvised styles, spanning from ancient music through to the modern experimental. The Zurich Series, on Origin Records, was created by Jonas in 2003 to support a certain kind of performance, documented on seven CDs which involve either completely live or "live in studio" recordings without editing.

Born in Winterthur, Switzerland, Jonas Tauber grew up and studied music in the USA, finishing with a Bachelor of Music in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY on cello. Then the search began: quit playing music for two years, studied philosophy, science, worked as a cook, cowboy, ski instructor, aikido instructor, climbed, sailed, and finally found his way back to the cello as principal cellist in the Boulder Philharmonic.

After that, a half year in Switzerland, then a year studying with William Pleeth in London, where he also performed as cellist in the Hengrave Quartet premiere at St. John's Smith Square. Then as principal cellist in the Cedar Rapids Symphony for two years, teaching at Grinnell College, nine months in the Knoxville Symphony, and directly to New York City.

In New York, he met pianist Albert Lotto, through whom he met and performed with Itzhak Perlman, along with the North/South Consonance Ensemble, Apple Hill Chamber Players, New York Piano Trio, John Hollenbeck's Quartet Lucy, Hans Tammen and Dafna Nafthali, Emmanuelle Somer, Barry Harris, and David Murray. Found by the band Pink Martini, he was invited to tour with them for the next 18 months or so. He switched to bass for the band and never looked back.

Moved to Portland, from where he worked with the Oregon Symphony, Doug Haning, Rob Blakeslee, Billy Mintz, Vinny Golia, Art Reznick, Michael Vlatkovich, Ken Ollis, and John Gross, through whom he found his way to Origin Records. He is executive producer of the Zurich Series, the idea of John Bishop, which features recordings by John Gross, Billy Mintz, Michael Vlatkovich, and BOX. He moved back to Switzerland in 2003, from where he performed in the bands of Rudy Smith, Michael Vlatkovich, Carle Ducasse, Hans-Peter Pfammatter's Scope, Conciliabolo, and Robert Morgenthaler's Art Attack. His own projects were an acoustic duo with pianist Hans-Peter Pfammatter, the Jonas Tauber Quintett featuring 40's and 50's sound, another group that includes Hans-Peter, drummer Dieter Ulrich, saxophonists Adrian Pflugshaupt and Andrea Oswald, a piano trio with pianist Tim Kleinert and drummer Kaspar Rast. He taught improvisation, classical and jazz bass at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern.