Biography

Danish-German saxophonist, flutist, composer and arranger Kim Barth is a graduate of the University of Performing Arts of Mannheim (Germany), where he studied Jazz Performing, Composition and Arrangement, and Long Island University (New York), where he depthened his instrumental skills with Steve Wilson, Bruce Barth, Bob Mintzer and Pete Yellin, and his studies in classical counterpoint and arranging with David Hollister, Michael Philip Mossman and Dave Douglas. After years spent working in different countries, Kim Barth is currently based in Germany and teaches at the Jazz Department of the University of Music of Nuremberg and at the Music School of Fürth, where he also leads Germany´s sole existing Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band the Time Bandits.

Since he was selected to join the German Jazz Youth Orchestra directed by Peter Herbolzheimer and John Ruocco at the age of 19,  Kim Barth has been involved in several jazz projects and is now an internationally recognized musical director, musician and producer, a task facilitated by his know-how in intercultural communication and proficiency in different languages. Kim Barth speaks German, Danish, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

His first major project, Bossa Nova Legends (2001-2006) featuring Latin grammy winner Leny Andrade, Pery Ribeiro, Johnny Alf and Alaíde Costa literally launched Kim Barth and his German guitarist fellow Paulo Morello on the international Latin Jazz scene. Together with the production of video and CD release Morello and Barth present Bossa Nova Legends, this project reached its climax through a three year-tour (2003 - 2006) hitting the major jazz festivals in Europe and South America (the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, the Teatro Rival in Rio de Janeiro) and the Verona Jazz Festival  in Italy. In the aftermath of this successful project, Kim Barth started a new project that would class among his major achievements, Moment of Passion, featuring and producing today well known Brazilian singer Viviane de Farias. Late Night Coffee, his recent transatlantic project with New York trumpeter, composer and arranger Michael Philipp Mossman is considered as Kim Barth's most significant project as it reveals him not only as a talented and mature reed player but also as an accomplished and innovative Jazz arranger and composer.

Kim Barth is also a much sought after saxophone and flute soloist. Featured in symphonic and chamber music performing classical pieces and concertos by Igor Stravinsky, Sergey Rachmaninov, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, he has also played in orchestral works, musicals and dance performances namely by Leonard Bernstein and Kurt Weil.

Kim Barth has significantly contributed to make Choro, Brazil's virtuoso and charming instrumental music, known to German public. He initiated Rio 1910, a project that brings together musicians to play Choro as it is usually performed in Brazil: in bars, seated around a table among the audience.

Kim Barth is a proud member of international Ensemble Banda do Patio, an innovative pool of artists including British trumpeter and composer Pete Lawrence, Chilean percussionist Claudio Estay, singer Lennart Seidewitz, Californian trombone virtuoso Christy Belicki, bassist Stefan Engels and concert pianist and composer Oriol Cruxiente from Barcelona. Blending Jazz and Latin Music with a full Score Symphony Orchestra, Banda do Patio performs its own contemporary compositions accompanied by prestigious Orchestras in Germany and other European countries. Kim's flute solo on Pete's arrangement of  "Besame Mucho" with Banda do Patio and symphony orchestra is simply touching.

Robinson