Ulrike Haage was born in Kassel and grew up in the Ruhr region. She is a composer, pianist, sound artist and radio play author. Haage studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Hamburg (where she took composition classes with Ulrich Leyendecker and, later on, taught orchestral conducting and improvisation for some years). A wider audience started to notice her in 1989 when she joined the pop band Rainbirds as a keyboardist. Her body of work includes theater music, radio plays and joint projects with musicians like FM Einheit or the actress Meret Becker. In addition, she established her own publishing company Sans Soleil and has worked as a producer, script author and solo pianist. In 2003 she was the first female to win the Deutscher Jazzpreis. Two years later, following the release of her solo album “Sélavy”, the Goethe-Institut sent her on an extensive tour of Russia, where she also held workshops for music students.
Haage’s work oscillates between jazz, avant-garde, classical music and literature. Recent releases include her third solo album “in:finitum” and film soundtracks for “Zwiebelfische” (DVD), which received a special music award at the Norddeutsche Filmtage, “Goldrausch” (CD), and “Meret Oppenheim – eine Surrealistin auf eigenen Wegen” (DVD), which received a music award at the DOK.fest documentary festival. In 2014, her piano composition “Harugasumi” won the audience award at the piano festival “Die andere Moderne – reloaded”. Her choir piece “The Moon Tapes”, which she wrote for the SWR (Südwestrundfunk) Vocal Ensemble, premiered in a Südwestrundfunk program and at the Klangdom in Karlsruhe as part of the Hörspieltage (Radio Play Festival) 2014.
