Florian Hoefner, Andrew Downing, Nick Fraser

Bios Florian H Born and raised in Germany, trained in New York City and now based in Canada, jazz pianist and composer, Florian Hoefner, draws from a myriad of influences that culminate in his unique brand of modern jazz. Praised as a “composer-bandleader of insightful resolve” by the New York Times and a “harmonically daring pianist […] reaching toward new sonic territory” by Downbeat, Florian Hoefner has made his mark as an inventive creator and performer of exciting contemporary Jazz. With his quartet, the Florian Hoefner Group, he has released 3 albums on Origin Records that have received rave reviews around the globe. “Luminosity,” his latest release that features tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, has been described as a “starkly picturesque album ... that makes profound statements from quiet moments” by Downbeat and as a “total experience” by the New York Jazz Record. It has been nominated as Jazz Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards 2017. The Group also received the Stingray Rising Star Award after their performance at the Montréal Jazz Festival 2015. As a member of the Germany-based collective, Subtone, he has released 5 critically acclaimed albums on labels including ENJA Records and performed on 4 continents including festivals such as Jazz Baltica (Germany), ACACIA Jazz Festival (Ethiopia), Jazz in Situ (Ecuador) and Tremplin Jazz d’Avignon (France) where the group was awarded the jury and audience awards. Florian’s work as a sideman has led to numerous additional CD releases including a collaboration with guitarist, Kurt Rosenwinkel on Fresh Sound Records. He has shared the stage with the likes of Joe Lovano, Seamus Blake, Rich Perry, John Riley, and New York Philharmonic clarinetist, Mark Nuccio. A two-time winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, Hoefner’s compositions and arrangements can be heard on many commercial albums by artists including Till Brönner, Jasmin Tabatabai and Peter Fessler. His big band compositions have been performed by the New York Jazz Orchestra, the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra, the German Youth Jazz Orchestra and the DanJam Orchestra. Now Florian presents his new Canadian trio with Andrew Downing on bass and Nick Fraser on drums. The group is performing a completely new repertoire of his originals and arrangements of folk songs from different parts of the world. Their debut album, “First Spring” was released on September 27th 2019 on Alma Records / Universal.

Andrew Downing is a Toronto based double bass player, cellist, composer and educator born in London, Ontario in 1973. He plays primarily in the creative jazz scene in Canada, but also performs classical chamber music, improvised music, folk and roots music, and world music. He practices the unusual craft of tuning his bass in fifths an octave lower than a cello. His teachers include Jack Winn, Dave Young, Don Thompson, Shauna Rolston and Joel Quarrington. His own projects span a wide variety of styles and practices. Most recently, he has started a ‘quiet jazz’ ensemble of cello, alto saxophone, lap steel guitar, vibraphone, bass and drums called Otterville that released its first recording in the fall of 2016, which was recently nominated for a Juno Award. He has won two Juno awards, one for his own recording Blow The House Down with his former group Great Uncles of the Revolution, and one with the Vancouver-based group Zubot and Dawson. He has also won two West Coast Music Awards, a Socan Award, and the Grand Prix de Jazz from the Montreal Jazz Festival. Andrew currently teaches double bass, composition and improvisation at the University of Toronto and has taught at Wilfred Laurier University, the Banff Centre’s Jazz Workshop and the Creative Music Workshop in Halifax.

Drummer, Nick Fraser has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community for over twenty years. He has performed with a veritable "who's who" of Canadian jazz and improvised music and with such international artists as Tony Malaby, Kris Davis, Roscoe Mitchell, Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton, Donny McCaslin and David Binney. Nick's recorded works as a leader include Owls in Daylight (1997),Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it (2004), Towns and Villages (2013), Too Many Continents (2015) and Starer (2016). For ten years, he co-led the group Drumheller, who released four critically acclaimed recordings. Other projects that occupy him regularly are Peripheral Vision, Eucalyptus, Titanium Riot, Ugly Beauties (with Marilyn Lerner and Matt Brubeck), and the Lina Allemano Four. Nick has performed on over 70 commercially released recordings.