Generation Z doesn’t like to throw themselves into work. The best counter-example is the 22-year-old jazz drummer Konstantin Kölmel from Sinzheim near Baden-Baden. On May 18, 2024 you can experience him as the initiator, organizer and musician of a special evening on the stage of the Prinzregententheater. This “Leo Benefit Jazz Gala” brings together Kölmel’s activities, which are almost unbelievable given his age and which have already earned him the title of “Hope of Jazz” in a SWR article.
While still a high school student, Kölmel took up a double major in drums and economics as a young student in Stuttgart. Since then he has also had his own companies, Kölmel Media (as a label, organizer and video production) and Kölmel Music School. Not yet 19, he was already successful with his own trio, at his side the pianist Justus Zitt and the trumpeter Jakob Bänsch, who had just won the German Jazz Prize. Shortly afterwards, the debut album “Hybrid” was released, which featured modern jazz with styles such as funk and world music, his own compositions with those of his friend trumpeter Thomas Siffling or the American bassist Thundercat, but also classical jazz instruments with Arabic darabuka and electronics merges.
As busy as he is as a musician, Kölmel is also a networker, mastermind and doer. He gained his first experiences as a festival co-organizer in Rastatt and Karlsruhe, which he then used last summer for the “Baden-Baden Lives” he founded and managed, a new open-air music festival in the middle of the city with stars like Max Mutzke , Nils Wülker and Thomas D. And as if all that wasn’t enough, Kölmel also thinks about the bigger picture. So to the future of Generation Z and their world. For this purpose, Kölmel founded Leo, together with his equally young industry colleagues Matteo Scherer, Nils Rauscher, Hendrik Langenstein and Marcel Geck Liberating Education Organization. A “movement that wants to sustainably change the world through education and make a contribution to global educational justice,” as Kölmel says.
The starting point was the invitation to a United Nations meeting in New York in 2022 because, together with a Warsaw association, they had collected an astonishing three million euros for Ukrainian war refugees. There they realized that a lot was already happening institutionally for Ukraine. But the most important thing that is missing in other regions of the world is education as the key to everything else. After founding a “Leo Club” last March, it also launched as a registered organization and founded the first hybrid university in Kenya – an “innovative combination of remote online learning, live sessions and local pedagogical support,” as it says their homepage is called. As a nucleus from which a global network of free university education centers is to develop.
Notaries and auditors helped them overcome the hurdles of German bureaucracy free of charge, and the right partners were found in Nairobi. And so in Kilgoris, in the heart of the Masai region, a complete range of university courses is now running, in which lecturers from other countries are involved thanks to satellite internet. More hybrid centers are to follow, says Kölmel: “Because a bedroom that you share with your siblings is not a place for learning.” The focus is on practical relevance. The courses have been developed to be current and practically relevant in partnerships with local organizations, with renowned universities such as the second oldest American William & Mary, with UN ambassadors and German companies. Leading professors and experts were recruited to teach the basics of business such as founding your own start-ups.
The enthusiasm and willingness of young Africans to learn and do something is inspiring and overwhelming, says Kölmel, “that’s different than here, where many of them tend to adopt a waiting and demanding attitude.” Of course the whole thing costs money. Apart from collecting from the ever-expanding circle of friends, a vintage car rally and a charity gala with Nils Landgren were organized in Baden-Baden. That was enough to initially realize the project completely without external foundations. There are now inquiries from other regions of Kenya, but also from the Congo and Nepal.
But so that things can continue, the radius is being expanded step by step. In addition to the first one, there are already other Leo clubs on Lake Constance, in Hohenbaden – and in Munich. Where, among others, jazz singer Kilian Sladek is involved, who also took care of the charity gala in the Prinzregententheater. And will be on stage just like Kölmel with his Konstantin Kölmel Project. Joining them from the generation of their peers is the multi-award-winning Munich bassist Nils Kugelmann – who is on the rise with his own trio and was voted “Ensemble of the Year” in his partner Shuteen Erdenebaatar’s quartet – and the equally highly decorated bassist who, like Kugelmann, is under contract with the Act label Stuttgart saxophonist Jakob Manz.
As a slightly older “headliner”, the trumpeter and Echo award winner Nils Wülker, who has been living in Munich for several years, puts himself at the service of a good cause. The passionate mountaineer has been one of the best-known German jazz musicians for years with highly successful albums and tours. For the past two years he has been on tour, sometimes in parallel, with three projects: with his electronic project “Go”, with the orchestra project currently accompanied by the Saarland State Orchestra “Continuum” and in a duo with guitarist Arne Jansen.
A perfect package for everyone who wants to experience gripping, rousing young jazz and at the same time help with a groundbreaking international educational project.
Leo Benefit Jazz Gala, Saturday, May 18th, 8 p.m., Prinzregententheater, Prinzregentenplatz 12, www.theaterakademie.de