EMANUEL RUFFLER

MUSIC COLLABORATOR (KEYBOARDS)

Emanuel Ruffler (he/him), Composer and Pianist, was born in Munich, Germany in 1975. He became interested in music early on and quickly started playing with some of the biggest names on the German jazz scene. Ruffler worked alongside master percussionists Maurice Dioubate from Guinea and Famadi Sako from Ivory Coast. His project combining West-African drumming with Jazz Compositions earned the cultural scholarship of the City of Munich in 1992. In 1996, he moved to NYC to study with legendary pianists Jaki Byard and Mulgrew Miller. Since then he has composed music for a diverse list of artists, from Meshell Ndegeocello to Blue Note legend Joe Chambers. Ruffler has created soundscapes for designers like Winka Dubbeldam and Emanuel Ungaro, and his works were subsequently shown in international fashion shows and museums, including the Biennale in Venice. As a pianist, Ruffler has performed with internationally acclaimed artists including Don Byron, Cindy Blackman, N’dea Davenport and Antoine Roney. Ruffler won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Composers Competition in 1998 for his composition Lava, which was performed to a full house at the Smithsonian’s Baird Auditorium in Washington DC. In 2009, his album Nightflight received critical acclaim and international airplay. In 2015 his alt- jazz duo Painting released the album Gravity, featuring the unusual instrumentation of acoustic piano and Kassa Overall on drums. Ruffler holds a BFA in Jazz Performance from New School University and he is currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY.