Urs Hager - piano

Urs Hager was born 1996 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) and began playing the piano at the age of six, as a student of Bulgarian pianist Venelin Filipov. Being inspired by a concert of McCoy Tyner in his hometown, where his father took him to, his love for jazz and improvisation came out, which was leading to jazz-piano and composition lessons with Leonhard Schilde in Munich to bundle his youthful energy on the keys.

In 2014 he moved to Graz (Austria) to study Jazz-Piano at Kunstuniversität Graz with German pianist Olaf Polziehn, as well as composition and arrangement with Ed Partyka and Michael Abene. The result was an own, very individual songbook that was constantly growing. During his stay in Graz he had the chance to share the stage and celebrate the jazz tradition with luminaries like Jiggs Whigham, Jim Rotondi and Dusko Goykovich.

In 2017 he won the Zilina International Jazz Competition as a part of the Win Pongsakorn Quintet. After his Bachelors he moved to Vienna to start right away his Masters Studies at Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien with Austria’s jazz piano icon Oliver Kent, where he graduated in 2020.

His versatile playing style made him become part of many bands. He toured with musicians such as Andy Middleton, Herwig Gradischnig, Danny Ziemann, Klemens Marktl, Roman Schwaller, Peter Tuscher or Vincent Herring.

In "Megalopolis", his first album being the bandleader, Urs shines as a composer as well as a carrier of energy that is defining the passionate, improvised interplay within his band.