A little story about my career:
I grew up in Upper Carinthia/Austria and had recorder and accordion lessons as a child. I taught myself to play keyboards and played in bands and dance music ensembles as a teenager. From the age of 14 I took classical piano lessons.
After graduating from high school in 1989, I moved to Vienna and studied jazz piano, first at the Prayner Conservatory and then from 1992 at the Vienna University of Music under Heribert "Hepi" Kohlich. I received my diploma in 1997.
During my studies I had many gigs and concerts in Vienna, including with Oscar Klein, Luis Ribeiro, Jesse Frontin, Judy Archer, Vera Love and many more. Pretty soon I was able to make a living from my performances.
In 2002 I received an offer that was groundbreaking for me. The jazz and gospel singer Vera Love hired me as her exclusive piano accompanist for several years. "Gimme That Ol' Time Religion" was the name of our tour, which took us all over Central Europe and included over 300 concerts.
Vera passed away in February 2024. I will always remember her originality, her courage, her fairness and her wisdom. Thank you very much, dear Vera!
During our tour I moved to Germany in 2003. I traveled to concerts with Vera from Bad Ems. In 2006 my journey took me to Cologne.
Here, too, I found employment as a piano accompanist for numerous singers and later as a theater musician.
Productions with Anne Simmering, the philosopher, singer and filmmaker Theo Roos, engagements as musical director at the Klüngelpütz Cologne, at the Theater an der Luegallee Düsseldorf,
In 2007 I played with Marla Glen. We had concerts in Vienna, Cologne, Bildein, Flensburg, Düsseldorf, Saarbrücken...
Since 2011 I have been working as an arranger for numerous music education volumes for Schott Publishing. I have also been involved in numerous CD productions.
Over the course of time I have performed at the Vienna Music Association, the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, the Cologne Schauspielhaus, the Cologne Opera, the Lahnstein Blues Festival, the Fürth Blues Festival, the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, the Potsdam Music Festival, and many more.
In 2014 I founded the "Trio Contraire" with Radek Stawarz vio, and Paul G. Ulrich b. 2015 recording of the album "Uneven Tales" with my compositions.
In the same year I founded the Tastensalon together with my wife, the harpsichordist and pianist Angela Koppenwallner. Here we give piano lessons and together we cover a wide range of styles. From early music to classical, jazz, blues and pop piano. Both on site in Cologne and online.
In 2023, I founded the duo “You and I and 1000 Keys” with Angela. Angela Koppenwallner: harpsichord, piano, clavichord, Harald Rutar: piano, accordion, melodica, clavichord, We had our premiere in June 2023 at the Potsdam Music Festival.
