Press

Andrea Hermenau “is one of those new German Miss Miracles who are currently grinding at the male bastion of jazz.(…) What has been condensed over the years comes together here: the harmonically adept, melodically sustained piano playing; the very soft and beautiful singing, which is increasingly concentrated on the essentials; and finally the astonishingly rhythmic feeling of Andrea Hermenau, who once also performed as a percussionist.”
(Oliver Hochkeppel, SZ)

“Under the current motto ”The Melody At Night”, pianist Andrea Hermenau and her quintet performed the second of six concerts last Tuesday and gave a thoroughly impressive performance. (…) All in all, it was a great evening with compositions and texts about love, tears and myths about the night. At the same time, the synaesthete Hermenau is also a captivating storyteller and singer. Her fingers fly rhythmically over the keys with sensitivity, while she recites the sometimes melancholy and touching lyrics to her music in a wonderful voice. At the same time, the homogeneous interplay of the band is inspiring: relaxed, inspired and exciting, pure listening pleasure from the very first note. (…) With her program “Nachtpracht”, Andrea Hermenau and her band have definitely set standards by which her competitors will have to be measured.”
(TJ Krebs, Neue Musikzeitung, review of the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2020)

Press reactions to the album “Oneironaut”
by Andrea Hermenau & Carolyn Breuer:

” ‘Oneironaut’ is a saxophone album, piano album and vocal album in equal measure – and strong from start to finish.”
JazzThing

“Soulmusic”
Jazzthetik

“The ten original pieces by Breuer and Hermenau plus Victor Young’s ‘My foolish heart’ as a brilliant opener are very fine jazz with a dreamlike extra: Andrea Hermenau’s sugar-sweet voice (…). By the following Polarstern (…) at the latest, you sink at the feet of the successful concept (…) – and want more, because this is pure poetry.”
Musenblätter

“This is uncompromising jazz, coming from the heart and deeply anchored in the roots, highly sensitive, fresh.”
Radio Okerwelle

Music Prize of the City of Munich 2021

Jury statement:

Andrea Hermenau is an outstanding pianist and singer who has been active in the Munich jazz scene and far beyond for many years. Her projects bear witness to a broad musical horizon and successfully combine different worlds.

Her band “ETNA” from her student days was already award-winning and showed her very personal flair for subtle and catchy compositions. She is currently active together with singer Lisa Wahlandt and bassist Anna Veit in the trio “Drei Damen”, which has jazzy, pop arrangements as well as original compositions in its repertoire, or in a duo and quartet with saxophonist Carolyn Breuer, whose first album is due to be released in spring 2023.

With her current quintet with tenor saxophonist Till Martin, vibraphonist Tim Collins, bassist Sven Faller and drummer Bastian Jütte, she wowed the audience at the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2020.

Andrea Hermenau’s sometimes delicate, sometimes surprisingly bulky piano playing is always complemented by her vocals. She sings songs, but also uses her voice as an additional instrument and sings without lyrics. Her passion for Eastern European music shines through again and again in her compositions and here it becomes clear how skillfully Andrea Hermenau manages to make complex rhythms and exciting harmonies groove.

The City of Munich Music Prize 2021 is intended to support her work as a composer and instrumentalist and give her the opportunity to raise her international profile even further.