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Biography



  • Born 1952 in Berlin
  • Began playing guitar at age 14.
  • 1968–70: First Band "Cropies" with Tamara Danz
  • 1972: played in various bands, rock music
  • 1973–76: studied classical and jazz guitar at the Berlin "Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler"
  • 1977: started playing jazz, free jazz and improvised music.
  • 1977: first solo performance
  • 1977–86: member of various jazz or improvising groups in former GDR, and teacher at Musikhochschule
  • Played with the finest jazz players in East Germany, including Konrad Bauer
  • Played duetts with John Tchicai (sax), Joëlle Leandre (b) and Rudolf Dasek (g)
  • Performed with various dancers, including Arila Siegert
  • Toured in almost every European country
  • 1986: changed domicile to Nürnberg, 1987 to Köln
  • Several recording projects as a leader which have earned international acclaim
  • Several featured articles in various international publications
  • 1988–2009: Projects as a soloist, with different european musicians and American bassist David Friesen (6 CDs and 1 DVD)
  • Wrote a lot of compositions, some are available in books: "Guitar-guitar" and "Departure" with David Friesen
  • Since 1989 plays special guitars with 39 frets made by the great guitar maker from Holland Theo Scharpach www.scharpach.com
  • 1993: Afrika tour with flutist Michael Heupel (Goethe-Institut)
  • Duets with Simon Nabatov in the early nineties
  • He also gives workshops for improvisation and special guitar techniques
  • Developed a unique system to use the guitar body as a percussion instrument
  • Composed music for an animated film
  • 1996: played with Jamaaladeen Tacuma (also 2008–2011)
  • Worked with Rolf and Joachim Kühn
  • At the Bauhaus Dessau he did the music for several dance projekts with Arila Siegert, Iris Sputh and Thomas Hartmann seit 1997 Konzerte und Leitung von Improvisationsgruppen beim "Internationalen Gitarrenfestival Templin"
  • Living in Berlin since 1998
  • i>2005: Book "Getting in time" practicing with the metronome in a musical way
  • 2006: "Deutschland ein Wintermärchen" Heine - wie neu mit Thomas Brückner (Sprecher) Katharina Hilpert (fl) Baby Sommer (dr)
  • 2008: 2008 international well known photographer Ralph Gibson shoots Kropinski for his book "State of the Axe" - Guitar Masters in Photographs and Words (Museum of Fine Arts Houston); Kropinski wrotes the words for his photograph.
  • Till 2011 he released about 26 CDs and 2 DVDs.
  • 2011: 30-jähriges Jubiläum der Improvisationsgruppe "Doppelmoppel"; Conny und Johannes Bauer (tb) Joe Sachse und Kropinski (g)
Actual projects 2012
  • Solo
  • "Marula" with Majid Bekkas (oud, gembri) Aly Keita (Balafon) Michael Heupel (fl)
  • Duet with Michael Heupel
  • "Heine wie neu" Deutschland ein Wintermärchen
  • Thomas Brückner (narrator) Katharina Hilpert (fl) Baby Sommer (dr)
  • "Doppelmoppel"
  • Duet with Joe Sachse (g)
  • Duet with Dieter Köhnlein (p)
Since the early nineties he also works as a photographer; the photographs were used for his own CD-covers
  • 1989 "Dancing with the bass" ITM 1431 David Friesen (b) /Kropinski
  • "By the way", AHO 1001 Dieter Köhnlein (p) /Kropinski
  • 1995 "African notebook", AHO 1024, Michael Heupel (fl) /Kropinski
  • 1999 "Made in Berlin", ITM 14106, David Friesen (b) /Kropinski
  • 2004 "Sentimental moods", ITM 14119, Michael Heupel (fl) /Kropinski
  • 2004 "Made in Istanbul", ITM 14118, David Friesen (b) /Kropinski
  • 2005 "American dream", Acoustic music, Solo
  • 2005 "Made with friends", JW 007, D.Friesen, Conny Bauer(tb) John Gross(ts)
  • 2008 "Marula - In all", Majid Bekkas(oud,gembri), Aly Keita (balafon), Michael Heupel(fl) / Kropinski
and for the CD- covers of other artists
  • 1992 "Long trip home", ITMP 970073, David Friesen Solo
  • 1995 "Into it", Lee Konitz (as,ss) Frank Wunsch (p) WW 2090
  • 1999 "Speakeasy" PAO 10610, John Abercrombie + Jarek Smietana (g), Harvie Swartz (b), Adam Czerwinski (dr)
  • 2000 "C/D/E", PAO 10480, Marty Ehrlich (ss,as,cl,fl) Mark Dresser (b), Andrew Cyrille (dr)
  • 2000 "After the rainstorm" Wewelsiep 20991
  • 2001 "With you in mind", Summit records DCD290, David Friesen (b) Gary Versace (p)
His photographs were exhibited several times as Uwe THEO Kropinski