Leonel Kaplan
About
Leonel Kaplan is an Argentine trumpet player active in free improvisation. He has been part of the international improvised music scene since the early 2000s performing and recording throughout Latin America, Europe and U.S.
Kaplan has performed regularly alongside musicians like John Butcher, Klaus Fillip, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Christof Kurzmann among many others. He had performed in venues like The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Musée d’art Modern et Contemporain d’ Strasbourg, Europaisches Zentrum der Künste Hellerau Dresden, Gessneralle theater Zurich, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires and others. Numerous festivals such as Music Unlimited Wels, Festival of New Trumpet New York, Musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst Graz, Soco Festival Teatro Solís Montevideo, Festival Tsunami Chile, Festival Santo Noise Córdoba, Seattle Improvised Music Festival between many others.
Kaplan is also composing music for dance, theater and light installations around the world collaborating with artists and companies like Capriconnection from Switzerland, Nicole Bindler from USA, Ly Thanh Thien from France and Aleksandra Stratimirovic from Serbia.
Kaplan’s music can be found in labels like Catalytic Sound (USA) ESP-DISK' (USA), Another Timbre (UK), Relative Pitches (USA) and more.
Nowadays Kaplan lives in Buenos Aires, Valencia, Belgrade and Stockholm depending the month of the year.
Jazz & free improvisation language and trumpet technique. Always focusing on the body as the main instrument to generate sound. Relaxed and informal but with a very deep look at my students needs, the history and future of music, art, and trumpet playing.
All my lessons are personalized and focused on your interests.
Always starting from this crucial point, we will address various aspects of the instrument: from technical issues (such as embouchure, breathing, flexibility and range among many others) as many questions related specifically to the jazz language, harmony, and different kinds of improvisation.
Technically speaking, I am based in the great American trumpet tradition. Teachers like Clarke, Gordon, Stamp, Caruso and Colin are fundamental in my playing routine.
Musically, I have grown up with jazz: from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis, passing through Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Kenny Dorham, Johnny Coles and Tony Fruscella between many others. That said, my language has developed to contemporary jazz, having influence from players like Don Cherry, Lester Bowie, Bill Dixon, Franz Koglmann, Ron Miles, and many collegues from my own generation with which I shared tours and recordings like Nate Wooley, Peter Evans, Axel Dörner, Birgit Ulher and Franz Hautzinger.
I believe that my teaching method is a mix of all these great players, teachers, friends, collegues and experiences.