Rendezvous um halb 8

In the 2025/26 season, the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has once again arranged exciting dates with strong musicians from the region at the stage bar: Bluegrass, jazz and Balkan brass meet aria, song and Lied! A musical rendezvous with a chat about music and the world, before perhaps even jumping into the crossover box while making music together.

We can't get enough – this season, we're once again preparing a musical rendezvous with jazz for the audience! This time, our guests are jazz singer, instrumentalist, lyricist, and composer Sabine Kühlich and Jazz pianist Laia Genc. "You can transform any aria from an opera into a jazz song," says the multi-award-winning singer. Sounds like there's potential for more: And so, the vocal ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Sabine Kühlich invite the audience to join them for a jam session.

Sabine Kühlich & Laia Genc are celebrated as a masterclass duo – internationally acclaimed from Germany to Brazil to Africa. They present the songs of the Dave Brubeck Quartet with vocals, saxophone and piano. New interpretations and musical connotations find their way into the quartet's own sound with Stefan Werni on the fat swinging double bass and Jeroen Truyen delicate and defined on the drums. Laia Genc and Sabine Kühlich are also composers themselves, following in the footsteps of jazz history. German poetry – Rilke – poems are musically processed as vocalese or songs. Just as the musical cultures of different countries influenced Brubeck, who came from California, Kühlich and Genc draw on Brazilian, Cuban and European musical traditions and tastefully blend them with the ‘Great American Songbook’ in European tradition. The passionate musicians have created their programme ‘From Brubeck to Kühlich to Rilke and Genc’ with their very own sound and that certain something between virtuosity and tastefulness.
Laia Genc is a winner of the Cologne Jazz Prize and was a scholarship holder of the Women's Culture Office NRW with ‘Präsenz Vor Ort’ in 2020. In November 2023, she received the Oberbergischer Kulturpreis. She teaches at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, among other places. Sabine Kühlich trains the young generation of jazz musicians at the Conservatorium in Maastricht and won first prize at the International Montreux Jazz Voice Competition.

Sabine Kühlich | Jazz Singer & Vocal Coach