Michael Kahr
Musicologist, Artistic Researcher, Pianist, and Composer
A leading figure in artistic research in jazz, Michael Kahr bridges performance, scholarship, and institutional leadership across Vienna, Graz, Klagenfurt, and beyond.
Prof. Dr. Michael Kahr is a pianist, composer/arranger, musicologist, and artistic researcher, currently serving as Head of the Center for Artistic Research and Dean of the Music Faculty at JAM MUSIC LAB Private University for Jazz and Popular Music in Vienna, where he also leads the university's new artistic doctoral program.
He also works as Senior Artist at the Institute for Jazz at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, and has lectured at universities in Vienna, Salzburg, and Sydney.
Kahr is currently leading the four year research project Artistic Research in Jazz and Popular Music: An Artistic Scientific Cartography of Musical Practices in Vienna (2024 to 2028), and serves as an advisory board member of the FWF PEEK project What are they building in there? (2026 to 2029).
His publications include the award winning monograph Jazz & the City: Jazz in Graz von 1965 bis 2015, along with numerous journal articles, book chapters, CDs, and musical scores. He edited the volume Artistic Research in Jazz: Positions, Theories, Methods (Routledge, 2021), and co edited the Routledge Companion to Jazz & Gender (2022). Together with Monika Herzig and Mike Fletcher, he co edits the ARJAZZ Journal for Artistic Research in Jazz, launched in 2025.
Kahr is a board member of the International Society for Jazz Research (ISJ), founder of the International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ), and a working group member of the AEC Pop Jazz Platform.
Beyond his academic leadership, Kahr maintains an active international career as a pianist and composer, performing regularly across Austria and abroad.
Selected Recordings
David Jaeger: Chamber Works for Viola
(Navona Records)
Features American violist Carol Gimbel with chamber partners Cullan Bryant (piano) and mezzo soprano Marina Poplavskaya.
Games of the Night Wind
(Red Shift Records)
With pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, including Jaeger's complete Nocturnes for piano.
Conjuring
(Red Shift Records)
Features Canadian/American violist Elizabeth Reid with pianist Alison Bruce Cerutti, including both acoustic chamber repertoire and electronic works with amplified viola.
Upcoming Events
2026 September 5th
Recital of David Jaeger's violin music, performed by Colli Chan.
2026 September 13th, 2:00 pm
Launch celebration of The Horn Speaks, featuring hornist Olivia Esther.
David Jaeger served as a member of the jury for Phantomnesis, Cambiata Arts' international call for contemporary music, experimental composition, and heritage rooted music, seeking pieces that explore the forgotten, the near forgotten, and the reimagined, works that bring neglected musical systems, regional practices, extinct gestures, or overlooked aesthetic pathways into today's listening. We are honored to have had his expertise and care throughout the assessment process.