Anke Helfrich
Having grown up in Namibia and Germany, the pianist Anke Helfrich is now one of the outstanding female jazz musicians in Europe. After studying at the "Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten" in the Netherlands, she went to New York on a scholarship and took lessons with the renowned pianists Kenny Barron and Larry Goldings. She won numerous prizes, including the "European Jazz Competition", the "Hennessy Jazz Search" and the "Muddy's Club Award". In 2003 she was the first recipient of the "Jazzpreis der Stadt Worms".

Her debut album "You'll see" (with guest soloist Mark Turner on saxophone) was nominated for the Quarterly Prize of the German Record Critics. So was her CD "Better times ahead" (with the American star trumpeter Roy Hargrove), which was highly praised by the press and was number 3 in the German jazz charts for weeks. In May 2007 she was invited as one of five finalists to the M.L.Williams Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, played solo concerts in Luxembourg, Lucerne and Hamburg and toured in China (with the band of Danish trumpeter Jens Winther), Malaysia and Italy. Her 3rd production entitled "Stormproof" was released in 2009 on the renowned label Enja Records (with bassist Henning Sieverts, drummer Dejan Terzic and trombonist Nils Wogram) and was enthusiastically received by the press.

She toured with the well-known New York women's big band "Diva" and presented her trio at the ElbJazzFestival, Jazz Baltica, the Bonner Klaviersommer and festivals in Italy and Switzerland, among others. Anke Helfrich has played with, among others. with Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Woode, Benny Bailey, Roy Hargrove, Mark Turner, Nils Landgren, Tony Lakatos, Jens Winther, Nils Wogram, John Marshal, Stacy Rowles, Robert Bonisolo, J Kyle Gregory, Adrien Mears, Claus Stötter, Dave Glasser, Gianni Basso, Keith Copeland, Johannes Weidenmueller, Jochen Rueckert, Peter Weniger, Martin Gjakonovski, Henning Sieverts, Dejan Terzic, Manu Katché, Lars Daniellson.

Since 1999 she has been a lecturer at the Musikhochschule Mannheim and gives jazz workshops in Germany and abroad. Her tours have taken her to Spain, Italy, France, Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Lithuania, USA, China, Malaysia, South Africa and Namibia.