Eva Klesse
born 1986 in Werl (NRW), began her percussion training at the age of eleven. She studied jazz percussion at the conservatories in Leipzig, Weimar and Paris, and graduated in 2013 with a double diploma (artistic/pedagogical) with distinction. From 2014 to 2016 she received a DAAD scholarship to study at New York University, which she completed with a Master of Music in 2016.

Eva is active as a percussionist and composer in numerous projects, currently including the Julia Hülsmann Octet, the Sarah Chaksad Large Ensemble, the Quartett Trillmann, the Jorinde Jelen Band and her own band, the Eva Klesse Quartet (with Evgeny Ring, Philip Frischkorn & Marc Muellbauer). She also plays with musicians such as Ethan Iverson, Marilyn Mazur, Wolfgang Muthspiel and Nils Landgren.

Concert tours have taken her to the USA, the Dominican Republic, Turkey, Switzerland, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Serbia, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Egypt and China.

In addition, Eva Klesse has performed on the stages of numerous renowned festivals in recent years, such as the Berlin Jazz Festival, Jazz Baltica, Elbjazz, the Leipzig and Dortmund Jazz Days, the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival, the Cairo Jazz Festival, the Münster Jazz Festival, the 12 Points Festival, as well as in numerous radio productions (NDR, WDR, BR, SR, SWR, Deutschlandfunk).

In October 2014, the debut album of the Eva Klesse Quartet - "Xenon" - was released on enja Records, which was awarded the Echo Jazz 2015 in the category "Newcomer of the Year". The second album "Obenland" was released in 2016, the third album "miniatures" in 2018, the fourth album "creatures & states" in 2020. The quartet's 5th and anniversary album "songs against loneliness" (featured guest: Wolfgang Muthspiel) will be released in October 2022.

Eva Klesse is a laureate of the Leipzig Jazz Young Talent Award of the Marion-Ermer-Foundation (2013), the Westfalen Jazz Award (2017) and the JTI Trier Jazz Award (2019), among others.

In 2021 Eva was nominated for the German Jazz Award in the category "Drums national" and received the SWR Jazz Award, the oldest and most traditional jazz award in Germany, in autumn 2021.

Since 2018, Eva Klesse has been teaching as a professor of jazz percussion at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.

"Eva Klesse has been one of the young figureheads of German jazz for years now." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)