The Versatile Thomas Quasthoff: From Classical to Jazz and Beyond

The most beautiful voice in the world

For almost four decades, Thomas Quasthoff set standards as a singer on international stages and reached and moved countless people with his art. In January 2012 he ended his unprecedented career as a classical singer. However, he remains closely connected to singing and art as a teacher and in master classes. In addition, he discovered many new talents and is on stage as a reciter, cabaret artist, moderator and even as an actor.

Long before he left classical music, he began to pursue his second great love, jazz, which had accompanied him throughout his life. Since 2007 he has also been a jazz singer on the world’s major concert stages, singing his favorite songs by soul legends, pop stars and blues heroes with an illustrious band and guests such as Nils Landgren, Till Brönner and Bill Evans. When Thomas Quasthoff brings his new program “Meeting Friends” to life, he is one thing above all: absolutely authentic. Quasthoff has a somnambulistic sense of the appropriate style of what he sings. The “man with the most beautiful voice in the world”, as Stern called him, knows exactly what he is doing and what he wants. This applies to opera arias, art and folk songs as well as jazz, pop and soul. He has long since proven that, as a true classical singer with his enormously versatile bass-baritone, he also masters genres that are rooted in the Afro-American musical tradition. After his unforgettable Schubert interpretations, the fact that the power of interpretation and a sure taste go hand in hand is now also evident in the field of jazz.

Thomas Quasthoff – Life
Shawn Grocott – trombone
Wolfgang Meyer – guitar