Manfred Honetschläger

Manfred Honetschläger studied for a classical orchestra degree before playing trombone in various symphony and opera orchestras, jazz formations and big bands, including Jerry Mulligan’s European Jazz Orchestra. He also studied composition and arrangement with Bill Dobbins and Rayburn Wright at the Eastman School of Music, with Kenny Napper at the Conservatorium in Hilversum and with Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely at the Cologne University of Music and Dance (on a GEMA scholarship).

After several years playing in the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester, Manfred Honetschläger joined the hr-Bigband, the big band of the public broadcasting network in the federal state of Hesse. He has collaborated for many years with the Warsaw Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Babelsberg Film Orchestra, where he is conductor, composer and arranger for music and film productions. He has been project lead for the hr-Bigband on crossover programmes (including with German artists like Bela B., Laith Al Deen and Pe Werner), the Jazz Festival Frankfurt (with Aki Takase and Rudi Mahall) and the SWR Big Band at the official opening of the Ruhr Piano Festival.

Manfred Honetschläger has composed chamber music, a jazz mass, music for radio plays (e.g. for “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” broadcast in 2013), a big band/jazz programme for children, incidental music and crossover classic (including for Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra and the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin). He has also taught in the Jazz/Popular Music Department at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.