Ilja Ruf / Piano
Hannes Pries / Drums
Niklas Müller / Bass
Bernd Ruf Clarinet / Saxophone

Ilja Ruf Trio feat. Bernd Ruf

ILJA RUF knows Taiwan from his performances with his father, Bernd Ruf, at the Taichung Jazz Festival in 2017 and 2018. As an instrumentalist, singer, and composer, Ilja Ruf is one of Germany's most exciting and outstanding talents. Building on his classical training, he works in a wide stylistic field from jazz to pop, tango, klezmer, film and orchestral music to classical. He has already received essential jazz awards and nominations for record awards. He learned jazz piano from Richie Beirach and Joanne Brackeen, among others.

As a pianist, Ilja Ruf plays with the Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren, among others. His solo debut album, "Ilja_19 - Acoustic Album," was nominated for the 2021 German Record Critics' Award in the Singer/Songwriter category. On the album "Utopia - Dialogues in Jazz With My Grandparents," released in November 2022, Ilja Ruf enters into a musical dialogue with the German jazz veteran, saxophonist Bernd Konrad.

The ILJA RUF TRIO’s new album will be released in the summer of 2024, featuring both instrumental compositions and pop-jazz songs. In HANNES PRIES and NIKLAS MÜLLER, Ilja Ruf found two like-minded musicians equally at home in jazz, pop and classical music. These influences can also be heard in Ilja Ruf's compositions. Based on the traditional jazz trio line-up, the three musicians play a fresh, contemporary jazz sound in which musical depth, a love of improvisation and entertainment flow harmoniously into one another in a unique way.

Bernd Ruf

Grammy nominee BERND RUF regularly works with Taiwanese artists and universities. With his GermanPops Orchestra, he recorded several albums as a conductor from 2015 to the present for Sodagreen / Oaeen and in 2019 for Kung Yu-Chi's solo album. As music director, he performed with his ensembles MHL-PopsChor and MHL-Bigband from the Lübeck University of Music at the Taichung Jazz Festival in 2017 and 2018. He gave master classes at the Taipei National University of the Arts and the National Chiayi University. He was a jury member at the Kuandu International Animation Festival in 2020 and will participate again as a jury member in 2024.

Bernd Ruf is currently one of the most experienced and creative musical personalities in the field of classical crossover. He is regarded as one of the pioneers in combining classical and symphonic music with popular genres. He has worked with Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, Richie Beirach and Charlie Mariano, among others. In the rock genre, he has conducted projects with Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) and Paul McCartney, among others. The majority of game soundtracks produced in Germany were conducted by him. As a clarinetist, he played for more than 20 years with the tango maestro Rául Jaurena from Montevideo.