Benjamin Schaefer (*1981) studied jazz piano and composition in Cologne with Hans Lüdemann, John Taylor and Joachim Ullrich from 2001 to 2008. He was part of the German national youth jazz orchestra (BuJazzO) from 2004 to 2006 and has toured several European countries as well as Russia, the Ucraine, the USA and seven Central American states.
With his trio, Benjamin won both the public prize and the award for the best composition at the “Concours du Jazz Europeen 2007” in Avignon. In the same year, the trio was awarded the “Jazz Prize of Lower Saxony” and got to the semi-finals of the “New German Jazz Prize”.
Their latest CD “Roots and Wings”, published in 2008 by the renowned Enja label, has received rave reviews in both national and international media. The trio has played important jazz clubs and numerous festivals (Rheingau Musik Festival, Leverkusener Jazztage, jazztransfer Saarbrücken et al. ) as well as double bills with Roy Hargrove and Abdullah Ibrahim and their concerts have been recorded by various radio stations.
Apart from his artist work, he works as a music teacher at Cologne College of Music.