Philipp Schiepek and Lorenz Widauer

BANGERS AND BALLADS

Philipp Schiepek (Gitarre / Deutschland)

Lorenz Widauer (Trompete / Österreich)

Michael Acker (Bass / Rumänien)

Matheus Jardim (Drums / Brasilien)

An appreciation for the seemingly insignificant and a love of detail—these are two things that connect musicians Lorenz Widauer and Philipp Schiepek. After first meeting at the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2021 and recognizing these similarities, the idea for a joint project quickly took shape.

With BANGERS AND BALLADS, the two now present an exciting program full of joy, which they recorded with their friends, Brazilian drummer Matheus Jardim and Romanian bassist Michael Acker. The result is an album that naturally combines strong, immediate, and direct melodies with compositions of deep and narrative sensitivity.

With his compositions and performances, guitarist and composer Philipp Schiepek consistently pursues the development of his own individual musical language, which he realizes in numerous jazz projects and as a solo artist. His projects have been featured at renowned festivals and venues such as the Jazzfest Berlin, the German Jazz Festival Frankfurt, and the Unterfahrt in Munich, and are regularly broadcast by ARD stations and ARTE. Schiepek has received numerous awards for his publications and artistic work, most recently including the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize. He is professor of jazz guitar at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.

Lorenz Widauer, born in Salzburg, developed exceptional musical versatility at an early age and devoted himself intensively to the trumpet and jazz during his musical training in Vienna. His music combines classical, contemporary, and improvised elements to create a unique artistic expression. As a bandleader and sideman, he toured throughout Europe at a young age and worked with ensembles such as Orjazztra Vienna, Shake Stew, and his own project Chez Fría. Widauer has received numerous awards for his work, was principal trumpeter at the Salzburg Festival, and is considered by ORF to be one of the most outstanding talents on the Austrian music scene.

The album BANGERS AND BALLADS will be released on May 8, 2026, on Wooden Waggon Records.

  • Philipp Schiepek

    Guitarist Philipp Schiepek has a vision: he wants to develop a new, individual musical language through his compositions and his playing. The musician and composer, who lives in Dinkelsbühl, is successfully pursuing this goal. In recent years, the young artist has focused his work on performing his own compositions with his jazz projects and interpreting music for solo guitar.

    With his ensembles, he has performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Leipzig Jazz Days, the Bach Festival in Köthen, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Leverkusen Jazz Days, and the Europe Sound Festival in Ankara, among others. Philipp Schiepek's concerts are broadcast on Deutschlandfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, RBB, WDR, and NDR. A 60-minute live concert recorded as part of the Berlin Jazz Festival was recently streamed on ARTE CONCERT.

    Schiepek's debut album as bandleader and composer, GOLEM DANCE, featuring New York star saxophonist Seamus Blake, was released in February 2019 on ENJA Records. In the same year, he was awarded the BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award. Most recently, Schiepek was awarded the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize (2024) in the music category and the City of Munich's Music Promotion Prize (2025).

    On April 30, 2021, Schiepek and pianist Walter Lang released the duo album “Cathedral” on ACT Music. Philipp Schiepek was a guest solo artist at the Köthen Bach Festival 2022 with the program “Saitenglück - Bach and inspired by Bach.” In February 2024, his new album “VERSUCH ZU TRÄUMEN” (Wooden Waggon Records) was released, featuring Henning Sieverts on bass and Bastian Jütte on drums. This was followed in November 2024 by the album “MEADOWS AND MIRRORS” (GLM), on which Schiepek showcases his playing on the nylon string guitar.

    “I particularly enjoyed the clear chiming, renege tone of the guitar.” London Jazz News

    “One of the outstanding guitarists of our country.” Bayerischer Rundfunk

  • Lorenz Widauer

    Lorenz Widauer, born in Salzburg (Austria), began his musical career with an intensive study of classical piano. By the age of 17, he had had the opportunity to perform in renowned concert halls such as the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg and MuTh Vienna. As a piano soloist, he worked with orchestras such as the Salzburg Philharmonic and performed works ranging from Mozart piano concertos to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. This early engagement with the classical repertoire laid the foundation for his versatile musical career.

    Widauer later turned his attention to the trumpet. While studying classical music in Vienna, he became increasingly immersed in jazz and developed a broad understanding of different styles. He combines his passion for classical, contemporary, and improvised music to create his own unique artistic language.

    At the age of just 26, he was already touring throughout Europe—both as a bandleader and as a sideman. These include Christian Muthspiel's Orjazztra Vienna, Shake Stew, Yvonne Moriel's sweetlife:quartet, and his own project Chez Fría—a contemporary, transdisciplinary ensemble founded as a commissioned work for the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival. From 2021 to 2024, he was principal trumpeter in the renowned production Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival, cementing his place as one of Austria's leading young musicians.

    Widauer received the Hubert von Goisern Culture Prize and won the ARTEDEA competition. He has worked with Miguel Zenón, Linda May Han Oh, Immanuel Wilkins, Kris Davis, Becca Stevens, and Guillermo Klein, among others. In fall 2024, he was selected as trumpeter for the Focusyear Band 25—a prestigious one-year program at the Basel Academy of Music under the direction of Wolfgang Muthspiel.

    “One of the most outstanding talents on the Austrian music scene” ORF

    “His star shines ever brighter” Salzburger Nachrichten