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- 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
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