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Like his best-selling fellow countryman Till Brönner, German trumpet player Nils Wülker reached the pop charts with his accessible jazz records. But where Brönner moves between several distinctive styles, Wülker's sound is generally more fusion-based, combining his soft, clear trumpet tone with pop, electronic music, smooth funk, and some sonic experimentation into an engaging whole. After establishing himself with several well-received albums on his own Ear Treat label, including the gold record-winning Safely Falling (2007) and Just Here, Just Now (2012), Wülker signed with Warner and released a widely noticed trio of albums with guest stars like Jill Scott, Craig Armstrong, Marteria, and Theo Croker: Up (2015), On (2017), and Go (2020). He continued to explore new modes with his orchestral record Continuum (2022) and a duo album with his longtime creative partner guitarist Arne Jansen, Closer (2023).

Born in August 1977 in Germany's then-capital Bonn, Nils Wülker started playing the piano at the age of seven and the trumpet at the age of ten in a classical context. At 16, while in the U.S. in an exchange program, he discovered US3's hit "Cantaloop," which led him to the records of Miles Davis. Back in Germany, he joined the JugendJazzOrchester NRW (Youth Jazz Orchestra North Rhine-Westphalia), and after graduating from school, he enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. While still a student, he played in his mentor Nicolai Thärichen's ensemble Thärichens Tentett, and performed with the Bundesjazzorchester, the RIAS Big Band, and the Judy Niemack Group. Before graduating in 2002, Wülker recorded his debut album, High Spirits, which became Sony Music's first release by a German jazz musician.

The attention led to an assignment to compose music for Space Night, a nightly German TV program which combines space photography with appropriately cosmic music. Where the accompanying album series focused mainly on chill-out tracks, Wülker's Space Night, Vol. 10 (2003) had more of a jazz foundation. Soon after, the trumpeter formed his own label, Ear Treat Music, through which he released a string of albums with his own group. My Game (2005) featured guest spots for Torun Eriksen, and Safely Falling (2007) had contributions from Silje Nergaard and Sting guitarist Dominic Miller, with the latter appearing again on Turning the Page (2008). On Wülker's sixth album, 6 (2010), he played guitar and bass and added his own vocals to some tunes. In 2011, he became the ensemble leader at the annual JazzBaltica Festival, working with colleagues like Michael Wollny, Dave Douglas, and Donny McCaslin. A year after the release of his next album, Just Here, Just Now (2012), he won an Echo Jazz Award for National Brass Instrumentalist of the Year.

Wülker was then signed by Warner, and his first major-label album, Up (2015), was a star-studded affair that featured guests like Jill Scott, Xavier Naidoo, Craig Armstrong, David McAlmont, and Max Mutzke, with more pop- and soul-leaning productions that propelled the record to number 55 on the German album charts. He made some changes with 2017's On -- with hip-hop producers the Krauts and featuring German rap star Marteria -- and Go (2020), with more electronic fusion and a guest appearance by Theo Croker. Both reached the German Top 40. In between, Wülker released his first concert album, Decade Live (2018), while also keeping himself busy hosting his own monthly radio show, Offbeat, between 2017 and 2020.

For 2022's Continuum, Wülker collaborated with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester (Munich Radio Orchestra) and took a more orchestral approach. As a counterpart to the record's large-scale canvas, he recorded a duo album with guitarist Arne Jansen, who had been part of Wülker's group for years. Released in February 2023, Closer, which featured intimate renditions of older songs, some covers such as Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," and a few new compositions, reached number 15 on the German album charts. Later the same year, Wülker released the similarly quiet EP Rays of Winter Sun, recorded with pianist Tim Allhoff and, on some tracks, bassist Sven Faller. ~ Christian Genzel

The Munich Radio Orchestra (German: Münchener Rundfunkorchester) is associated with Germany's Bavarian Radio public broadcaster, but should not be confused with the network's other orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks), which is devoted to mainstream symphonic repertory. The Munich Radio Orchestra has specialized in light music, adding forays into Italian opera, contemporary sacred music, and even -- in its frequent concerts in Munich -- jazz and video game music, the latter perhaps designed for the orchestra's extensive youth activities.

Orchestral music associated with Munich radio dates back to the 1920s, but the current Munich Radio Orchestra was founded in 1952. Its first music director was Werner Schmidt-Boelke, who built it into an ensemble devoted to the accompaniment of operetta productions over his 15-year tenure. The focus on operetta and opera has continued into the 21st century: the year 2015 saw the orchestra performing on a new recording of Lehár's Giuditta. But the group's repertory has broadened to include rarely heard symphonic works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Munich Radio Orchestra has recorded for Bavarian Radio's own label, BR Klassik, and for a variety of other high-prestige German and Austrian labels including Oehms, CPO, and the opera revival specialist label Preiser. The orchestra's current chief conductor, its ninth, is Croatia's Ivan Repusic, who took up the baton in 2017 after the retirement of Ulf Schirmer. ~ James Manheim

Patrick Hahn is a versatile figure whose activities extend to conducting, piano playing, composition, and jazz. He is the general music director of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra.

Hahn was born on July 17, 1995, in Graz, Austria. Although his family was not musical, he earned a place in the Graz Boys Choir as a boy treble soloist. Hahn enrolled at the Graz University of the Arts at age 11, studying piano. As he continued his studies, he added conducting and composition. At 12, he wrote an opera, Die Frittatensuppe, which was premiered the following year in Graz under his own direction. Hahn took conducting master classes from Kurt Masur and Bernard Haitink, and he rounded out his conducting education with fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. He made his conducting debut with the Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest in a concert marking the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Austrian-Hungarian border. Hahn remained active as a pianist, performing with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and as a lied accompanist in the Vienna Musikverein and serving as a rehearsal pianist at the Hamburg Staatsoper. In that city, he conducted the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major at the Elbphilharmonie concert hall; he was the youngest conductor ever to have appeared there. Hahn made his recording debut in 2020, leading the Kammerakademie Potsdam in accompaniment to Olivier Cavé in an Alpha recording of Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2.

Hahn has appeared with top orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. In 2021, he became Generalmusikdirektor of the Wuppertaler Bühnen und Sinfonieorchester GmbH, a durable city position that encompasses conducting the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra as well as opera productions; his contract there has been extended through 2026. Hahn has also served as the principal conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, which he conducted in 2022 on a BR Klassik recording of Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. Hahn returned on Alpha in 2023, leading the Philharmonia Orchestra on a recording of violin concertos by Bruch and Britten, with Kerson Leong as soloist. Hahn is also active as a jazz pianist, having made several appearances in the U.S. Midwest and received the Outstanding Soloist Award at the University of Wisconsin - La Cross Jazz Festival. He has a strong interest in the music of cabaret composer Georg Kreisler. ~ James Manheim