Ramon Jaffé

CLASSIC IS HIS LOVE - FLAMENCO HIS PASSION

A variety of different cultural backgrounds have accompanied Ramon Jaffé throughout his biographical and therefore also his artistic life. Born in Riga, Latvia, he and his family emigrated to Israel in 1971 and he has been living in Germany since 1974, where he also completed his studies.

From the beginning and up to his diploma, his artistic mentor was his father, Don Jaffé. In his quest to broaden his musical horizons, Ramon found models in D. Geringas, Sandor Végh, B. Pergamenschikow and Daniel Shafran. Under the patronage of these masters, he took part in a number of competitions with success. His subsequent career as a soloist took him to famous concert halls in Berlin, Munich, Colone and London. At the Vienna Music Festival he played a concert with the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which has been broadcast several times on radio and television. With the Bavarian Radio Orchestra conducted by R. Abbado, he appeared at the Hercules Hall in Munich in 1995 and, with the famous jazz singer Bobby McFerrin in Gasteig. He also played chamber—music with Sandor Végh at his last great performance as a violinist at the big hall of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Ramon Jaffé has been a guest at many festivals, such as the Schleswig—Holstein Festival, the Rheingau Festival, the Mozart— Festival in Würzburg, the Salzburg Kulturtage, Piano Summer in Munich, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland), the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Expo 1992 in Sevilla, the MIDEM in Cannes etc..
His playing has been captured on a large number of CD‘s, such as the ,,Meditation hebraique“, Brahms arrangements (published by Koch international) and a Granados disc (published by cpo), the World premiere recording of the Cello Concerto by B. Blacher (SIGNUM) as well as on numerous TV and radio recordings.

Making the acquaintance of the Andalusian flamenco guitarist Pedro Bacan, who died in 1997, turned out to be one of Ramon Jaffé‘s most exciting cultural encounters. Preliminary inquisitive experimentation led to his being initiated into the secrets of this fascinating world. Further development towards perfection finally found its culmination in performances with guitarist Stephan Schmidt at festivals as the Expo ,92 and the Biennale ,96 in Seville, the MIDEM ,95 in Can­nes, the M. Ohana Festivals in Paris, flamenco festivals in Madrid and Mt. de Marsan, and in many other concerts. He is continuing this path with Stephan Schmidt.

Chamber music delicacies are offered by Ramon Jaffé~ as a member of the string trio ,,Belcanto Strings“ and the ,,Mendelssohn Trio Berlin“.

He realized an artistic dream by founding the Chamber Music Festival Hopfgarten, Tyrol, of which he is the artistic director.

Ramon Jaffé is teaching at the Hochschule für Musik ,,C.M.v. Weber“ in Dresden.