Johannes Paul Gräßer has been playing the violin since he was five years old. Following intensive classical training and numerous chamber music projects, he broadened his horizons and starting seeking a new direction in many varied musical genres. Since 1999 his main focus has been on Klezmer, traditional and experimental music.

Writing in August 2012 about his duo-albmun “Rumeynishe Fantasien”, which he recorded with Szilvia Csaranko, the Yiddish Forward commented: “With this album Johannes Gräßer has earned himself a place among the ranks of the leading fiddle players of the Klezmer movement.”

Johannes is a founder and member of various ensembles. Together with the modern klezmer quartet he interprets Shostakowich’s opus 79 “From Jewish Folk Poetry” and with the ensemble sher on a shier he has dedicated himself to the sound of the old eastern European Klezmer bands. In 2006 he was a founding member of Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird and he can be heard on the band’s first two albums.

He has performed amongst others at Jewish Festival Krakow, Yiddish Summer Weimer, tff-Rudolstadt, Festival of 1000 sounds (Augsburg Synagogue), Klezmer Festival Valley, Klez West (Eifel), the Old and New Synagogues in Erfurt, Brest, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and on stages throughout Germany. He can be heard as a guest musician on numerous albums. He teaches at workshops throughout Germany and also gives individual lessons in his hometown of Erfurt, where he continues to develop projects of his own. In addition, Johannes is  musical director of the “Theater Magica”.

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Photo: Pierre Kamin