Sebastian Schunke, born in 1973, began learning classical piano when he was six. The main influences were Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Debussy. At the age of 12 he additionally began studying Latin jazz, being influenced by Eddie Palmieri and later on by Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Chick Corea and Danilo Perez. In 1996, at the age of 22, he went to New York. For the first time he experienced the energy and the spirit of this city. He studied Jazz Piano in New York with Garry Dial (Manhattan School of Music), Sonny Bravo and Hilton Ruiz and at the Conservatory of Music "Hochschule f-r Musik Hanns Eisler", Berlin. Fascinated by the way different cultures live together, he started developing his own musical concept of the connection between modern Latin American jazz and European music tradition. He digged into the New York Latin Scene, meeting John Benitez, Antonio Sanchez, Dafnis Prieto, Richie Flores, Peter Brainin and Yosvany Terry with whom he recorded his first CD "Symbiosis" in 2000. He wants to reflect the life and feelings of people in his compositions. Catchy tunes mix with complicated rhythms, transparent and complicated harmonic structures blend and rub against each other. His travel back and forth between the worlds, and the energy of his home cities Berlin and New York, give him the strength and ideas along his newly thought-out /created musical path: the path of symbiosis of modern and traditional trends to form a multi-layered harmonious European-Latin American way with the stories of life as its contents. Press/Comments: In his music Latin jazz meets European music traditions resulting in a fantastic relaxedness of sounds. Schunke himself plays a 7/4 Waltz better than any Afro-Cuban could do. That is Musica Latina Americana beyond any transitory fashion and trend. (Jazzpodium, April 2001). Globetrotter in 7/4. Young star Sebastian Schunke links Salsa with jazz. S.S. is travelling between N.Y. and B. and, full of energy at the age of only 27, he has reached the status of creating his own new style in Carribean jazz: He sensitively unifies European jazz harmony and Afro-Cuban polyrhythm. (Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 28. November 2000). Nobody plays Jazz and Afro-Cuban music like Sebastian Schunke does, it is a new way of understanding and combining different music traditions. Incredibly beautiful melodies and complicated Afro-Cuban rhythms go together in an unknown way. It takes a special artist to make complex ideas sound simple. This is new and fresh. I enjoyed a lot playing his music. (John Benitez).