Markus Geiselhart
Born in Stuttgart in 1977, the composer, arranger, bandleader and trombonist Markus Geiselhart has lived and worked in Vienna since 2006. Together with trumpeter Thomas Gansch he founded the „Don Ellis Tribute Orchestra“ in 2008 and released the CD „Bulge! Live“ in 2013. In 2010, he founded his “Markus Geiselhart Orchestra (MGO)”, with which he was the stage band at the renowned Viennese jazz club Porgy&Bess in the 2013/14 season and released the critically acclaimed album “My Instrument is the Orchestra” in 2016. In the same year, he toured with the MGO and the exceptional American trombonist Ray Anderson, including guest appearances at the „Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele“. In 2019, he composed the „Wiener Neustädter Kanal Suite“ as part of the Lower Austrian Provincial Exhibition commissioned by the municipality of Pfaffstaetten, which was released on CD in 2021 with the “Big Band Pfaffstaetten” and trumpeter Andy Haderer as soloist. In 2024, he conducted the “Zawinul All Star Big Band” as part of “Joe Zawinul’s Music Odyssey”, a tribute to Joe Zawinul initiated by his oldest son Tony Zawinul, as well as the finale, with Omar Hakim, Rachel Z, Gerald Veasley, Bob Franceschini and Bobby Thomas jr. among others, and wrote the arrangements for it.
As a composer and arranger he has written big band compositions as well as works for „Art of Brass Vienna“ and „Salaputia Brass“. In 2020 he was commissioned by the city of Baden near Vienna to compose a program for jazz orchestra for the Beethoven Year. Since 2023 collaboration with the South African non-profit organization MIAGI („Music is a great investment“), for whose orchestra he wrote arrangements for the 2024 European tour. In 2022 he founded „Edition geiselART – Musikverlag Markus Geiselhart“, where he mainly publishes his own works.
Since 2013 he has been teaching big band conducting and ensemble at the „mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna“, where he also teaches ear training, composition and arranging. He also taught theory, composition and arranging at the Jam Music Lab Private University in Vienna from 2012 to 2020 and held the position of Dean there from 2017 to 2019.
He has also been invited to give workshops and master classes by universities, such as the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa) in 2023, the South African Collage of Music at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma (Italy) as part of the European Jazz Workshop in 2024. In 2024, he has been invited to Baku (Azerbaijan) for a lecture, workshop and concert on the occasion of the International Jazz Day.
As a trombonist he brought the multimedia homage to Albert Mangelsdorff „Hut ab!“ to the stage, works with a solo program, in the duo project GAMP together with the Viennese poet Peter Ahorner, as well as with various smaller ensembles such as the trio „GEISELHART / KOLLER / THALER“, the „Geiselhart-Harm-Quintett“ or can be heard with his „Beatles Project“. He also works as a guest conductor with various jazz orchestras, such as the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, and is invited by big band workshops, such as the Landes-Lehrer-Big Band Baden-Württemberg. He is also a regular lecturer at jazz and big band seminars, such as the annual big band seminar at the Musikfabrik Niederösterreich.
From 1999 to 2004 he studied jazz trombone at the University of Music in Würzburg and was a member of the Bavarian State Youth Jazz Orchestra and the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO) under the direction of Peter Herbolzheimer. In 2005 he founded the „Würzburg Jazz Orchestra (WJO)“, which he led for six years and during which he performed about 40 concerts with 33 different programs and more than 100 participating artists.
selected press reviews:
„Markus Geiselhart – The African footprint“
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld, Cover story SONIC – magazine for woodwind and brass instruments (Germany) – issue 4.2024
„Markus Geiselhart had arranged Zawinul’s music perfectly for big band.”
Tommi Neubauer – Concerto (Austria) – Nr. 4 August/September 2024
„Geiselhart’s compositions and arrangements testify to his extraordinary talent for making a big band sound; they are colorful, stylistically varied and melodious in the best sense of the word.“
Jazz’n’more (Switzerland) – September 2021
„The Wiener Neustädter Kanal Suite is program music that is not stingy with melodies.
Like Smetana’s Moldau, only for big band.“
BRAWOO (Germany) – September 2021
„Geiselhart’s instrument is the orchestra, and he plays it masterfully.“
Rainer Bratfisch, Jazzpodium (Germany) – April 2016
