German-African Collaboration on the Piano
Jan Gerdes, who teaches piano at the Department of Aesthetic Education at the University of Potsdam, therefore dedicated an entire seminar to African – and Afrodiasporic – composers in the winter semester 2024/25. The master's students were able to deal in more depth with piano pieces and artists that you would search for in vain in the curricula of universities, in festival programs, and in concert halls.
The students were also able to study contemporary music, which Gerdes wants to help reach a wider audience with his album East-West-Central-South. The record, released in 2024, includes composers from Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Congo, and South Africa with stylistically very different works, recorded in the studio by Jan Gerdes. Delicate tonal pictures and alternating time signatures meet minimalist sounds, expressive gestures meet soundtrack-like music such as the “Walk on A Misty Morning”.
“It is a very subjective selection,” the pianist says. “But it is very multifaceted.” And it is the preliminary result of long-term artistic interests that go back to a trip to Senegal in 2018. Since then, the music lecturer has been using a growing network of personal contacts in Africa to unearth music that is created and performed far away from the established Eurocentric music scene.
How do you find unpublished compositions?
Scores? Difficult! “There is very little sheet music of contemporary piano music from Africa that you can buy,” Gerdes says. “It just has not been published yet.” The internet also proves to be of only limited help when it comes to unpublished works of art. It therefore took years to track down the composers and their works. Downright detective work that would hardly be conceivable without intercultural bridge-builders and the pioneering work of African composers and musicologists. Gerdes includes in particular Dr. Andile Khumalo from Johannesburg, who has also become known as a composer and music lecturer and is represented on Gerdes’ album with several pieces.
The musician discussed and rehearsed the selected works with Khumalo and other composers in Zoom meetings. Only André Bangambula Vindu from Congo could not be found at all, Gerdes remembers. Despite the fact that Vindu is anything but unknown: After his job as a music lecturer and a longer stay at the Shanghai Conservatory, the Congolese was, among other things, a member of the UNESCO International Music Council.
The fact that the piece “Lullaby” nonetheless made it on Gerdes’ album is due to the comparatively rare circumstance that it had already been published as a part of the “Suite for Piano” before. “After East-West-Central-South was published, Vindu showed up after all and was very happy,” Gerdes says. “These days, you can also find him on social media.”
He is therefore quite unconcerned about the criticism of cultural appropriation, especially since the composers have given their explicit approval for this recording project. Much in Europe was created at the expense of others, he says. “Today it is about meeting at eye level and understanding the social and cultural circumstances under which this music was created and due to which it has hardly been known in Germany so far.”
Back in the Chamber Music Hall of the University of Potsdam, attentive ears listen to the compositions of Ezra Abata Yimam. The music, based on the Ethiopian five-tone system, surprises with virtuoso moments and was recorded for the first time ever on Gerdes’ album. Students can choose this and many other works to rehearse, classify them in terms of music and cultural history, and finally present them in a closing event open to students and employees of the university.
Among these works is a piece by Florence Price, who became known in the first half of the 20th century as the first African-American composer of classical music. “There are still far too few performances of works by female composers,” Gerdes complains, “although students actually often ask specifically for them. And I think that’s absolutely justified.”
Performances and musical exchange in South Africa
The scope of his African repertoire? “I could easily produce another record like this,” Gerdes says. The musician is grateful for the support of his intercultural music project by the German Music Council and the Lund Foundation. The music feature pages were enthusiastic, too. In spring 2025, Gerdes wants to travel to Africa again, this time to the south of the continent. He has planned performances but also workshops with music students in Johannesburg and Pretoria. This also means new inspirations, a fresh supply of music literature, and contacts with the South African piano scene. “The musical journey is far from over,” Gerdes says.
East-West-Central-South was released by Label Genuin in 2024.
Jan Gerdes has been teaching the subject Piano at the University of Potsdam since 2010.
This text (in german language) was published in the university magazine Portal - Eins 2025 „Kinder“.