Drummer – Composer – Bandleader

Dirik Schilgen, born in Westphalia, studied jazz at the Hilversum Conservatorium / Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Since 1991, his creative base has been the Rhein-Neckar region in Heidelberg. As a freelance musician and drum teacher, mainly in southwestern Germany, as well as a regularly touring musician across Germany and Europe, Dirik Schilgen sees the musical profession from many angles.

His confidence and musical feel in different styles is reflected in a wide range of radio productions and CD recordings in jazz, pop and Brazilian music.

This has enabled Schilgen’s stylistic range in swing and modern jazz to evolve in much the same way as it did for the groovier music of soul, jazz rock and, in particular, Brazilian music and Latin American jazz.

His openness to experimental projects as well as projects that span a number of musical genres is also reflected in his sideman work.

His unique stylistic diversity is also in demand in radio and television, and on the cabaret scene, in productions by the production company Radiobühne Köln for SWR , WDR and NDR, and for a wide range of musical and theatre productions at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Heidelberg, and more.

DIRIK SCHILGEN

Many of these musical influences can be seen in the compositions and arrangements by his own band. The result is four CDs between 2005 and today.

Following the release of « On the Move », the band went on tour in Germany and abroad in a traditional quintet line-up.

In 2022, the album « Out Into New » was released and the band took on a new format.

With the current line-up „Dirik Schilgen JG4“, the Heidelberg band leader presents his new programme with the latest compositions from the past few months, as well as a few JazzGrooves compositions in a changed context and with a new sound.