Eva Kruse, born 1978 in Hamburg

As a child, Eva Kruse was tought classical piano for eleven years, and went from there to playing the electrical bass in different bigbands at the age of 14. In 1998 she started to study acoustic bass and improvisation at the university of arts "UdK" in Berlin for teachers Sigi Busch, Jerry Granelli and David Friedman. She also went to Sweden to study with jazzbassist and professor Anders Jormin in Göteborg for half a year. While playing with the youth-bigband "BundesJazzOrchester" in 1999-01, she took classes for pianist John Taylor who inspired her into starting writing music for different bands and projects.
Through university and "BuJazzO" she got to know her fellow musicians in [em] Eric Schaefer and Michael Wollny. In 2002, she formed a group of her own, and what started as Eva Kruse Trio soon became [em], while the trio wanted the name of the band to focus more on the music itself and the group as a unity. [em] is today her most important project with which she continously tours and records. Other projects include the bands Firomanum, Arne Jansen Trio and SOAP. Eva Kruse is also a well-known guest at the Jazz Baltica Festival in Schleswig-Holstein (Northern Germany), where she has played the session-opener-act for a few years as well as broadcasted concerts with [em], Firomanum, Saxophonist Bunky Green and the Jazz Baltica Ensemble lead by Johannes Enders. In Jazz Baltica she also got to know swedish trombonist Nils Landgren with whom she now is frequently playing and touring, e.g. with his newly found "New Eyes On Bach".