Jazz pianist and composer from Luxembourg.
Hailed as a “tremendous pianist” by Downbeat Magazine, Michel Reis has in recent years paved his way into an artist of international acclaim. Michel Reis has appeared in in many of the world’s most famous venues and festivals, including the Blue Note Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Olympia in Paris, the Casa de Musica in Porto, the Panama Jazz Festival the Montreux Jazz Festival, Cully Jazz, Crest Jazz Vocal, OctLoft Jazz Festival, Les Rendez-Vous de l’Erdre de Nantes and many more. He has toured extensively all over the world, performing in Europe, Asia, North and South America, as well as Africa.
Michel Reis has released 12 albums as a leader and co-leader: A Young Mind (2005) and Fairytale (2009) for Waltzing-Parke Records, Point of No Return (2011) for Armored Records, “Reis Demuth Wiltgen”(2013) for the French label Laborie Jazz, ‘’Hidden Meaning’’ (2013), “Capturing This Moment” (2015) and ‘’Places In Between’’ (2016) for Double Moon Records / Challenge Int., a solo album entitled ‘Mito’ for Cortez Sounds / Mocloud Records (2018), one with his Japanese Group entitled ‘Japan Quartet’ for Mocloud Records (2018) and ‘Once In A Blue Moon’ for the CAM Jazz label (2018). 2019 marks the release of his second solo album and second album for the CAM Jazz label, entitled ‘Short Stories’ and 2021 the release of his latest album with Reis Demuth Wiltgen entitled SLY.
A native of Luxembourg, Michel Reis began studying classical piano, jazz piano, composition and theory at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg under the tutelage of Gast Waltzing, Serge Bausch, Kris Defoort, Patrick Hartert and Guy Cabay. To further his musical training, Reis moved to Boston, MA to study at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, studying piano and composition with Danilo Perez, Ran Blake, Frank Carlberg, Hal Crook, Joe Lovano, and Dave Holland, obtaining first a Bachelor of Music and then a Master of Music. After his studies, Michel Reis moved to New York to delve into the professional Jazz scene, performing regularly with different groups as a leader and as a sideman. It is in New York, where Michel Reis met composer and orchestrator David Spear, who has been very influential in his career and whom he remained a student and a close friend with.
Michel Reis has collaborated with Joshua Redman, Vince Mendoza Didier Lookwood, Richard Bona, Gast Waltzing, Patrick Zimmerli, Jeff Ballard, Esperanza Spalding, George Garzone, Paul Wiltgen, Marc Demuth, Adam Cruz, Jonas Burgwinkel, Robert Landfermann, Stefan Karl Schmid, Niels Klein, Louis Moutin, Mauro Gargano, Jonathan Orland, Takashi Sugawa, Akihiro Nishiguchi, Sun Ishiwaka and many more. Besides performing, Michel Reis works extensively as a composer, arranger and orchestrator.
His co-lead trio Reis Demuth Wiltgen collaborates on a regular basis with US saxophonist Joshua Redman, who performs several of the trio’s compositions with his own bands, including Reis’ ‘The Story Of You And Me’. They embarked on a European tour in March 2018, where one of the highlights was a concert together with the Luxembourg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vince Mendoza.
Michel Reis has taught workshops and masterclasses in many different parts of the world, and since 2014, he has been appointed a part-time teacher for jazz piano at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg.
In 2005, Reis was a finalist in the First Moscow Competition for Jazz Performers. A year later, he took second prize at the Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition. For three times, Michel Reis won the Export Artist of the Year award from the Luxembourg export office music:LX, in 2013 and 2018 with the Reis Demuth Wiltgen Trio, and in 2014 as a solo artist.
Michel Reis is a Steinway Artist.
