" In Winter's playing listener can hear plainness and intelligence. Winter's improvisations and harmonies look back to the history of jazz but also expresses the atmosphere of today." Hiroki Sugita/Jazz Life (Japan) Niklas Winter started his studies at the Turku Conservatory in the mid 80’s and later studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston between 1991-1995. He has done 8 albums on his own name up to this date, the first one 'Hypnosis' in 1999. Winter’s main interest has always been writing and performing original music. His bands as a leader have been Winter’s Jazz Workshop and Niklas Winter Quartet. During the latest 10 years his focus has been on different duo settings playing with artists like Ulf Wakenius, Teemu Viinikainen, Severi Pyysalo, Andrei Ryabov, Lorenzo Cominoli and Jesse van Ruller. During the years Winter has been on stage with many fantastic musicians. Artists like Kenny Wheeler, Ulf Wakenius, Henry Lowther, Jesse van Ruller, Teemu Viinikainen, Cameron Brown, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jukkis Uotila, Lars Jansson, Ted Curson and Fumio Yasuda. Winter has written music for the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and been in many projects with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, latest in 2011 in Mikko Heiniö’s Erik XIV. He also runs his record label Abovoice. This label has released 20 jazz albums since 1999, getting the Finnish Jazz Grammy for the best jazz album in 2002. www.niklaswinter.com www.abovoice.com (buy albums)