Oli Bott studied vibraphone and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston with teachers such as Gary Burton and Bob Brookmeyer, graduating with "summa cum laude". Since then he has been living and working as a freelance vibraphonist and composer in Berlin. On several occasions he has been awarded scholarships by the city of Berlin, has received a number of commissions to compose pieces for his own jazz orchestra and the "Oli Bott String Orchestra" and has recorded many times for radio and television.

Since 1997, he has been touring with guitarist Thomas Wallisch by invitation of the Goethe Institute. The duo appears regularly at international festivals such as the European Festival Izmir, Calcutta Jazz Festival, Hamm Jazz Days, Meppen Night of Jazz, Burghausen Jazz Autumn, Augsburg Jazz Summer or Jazz Festival Würzburg.

His ensemble "Vibratanghissimo" (vibraphone, viola, double bass and piano) has quickly gained an enviable reputation through its original mixture of Jazz and Tango and is acclaimed by public and critics alike for both its live performances and its CD recordings.

Oli Bott also has a duo with the cellist Anna Carewe. Their (partly improvised) repertoire stretches from Diego Ortiz (around 1550), Vivaldi and Bach to jazz standards by Miles Davis or Duke Ellington, as well as compositions by Oli Bott, and opens the door to a totally new sound world.

Oli Bott was a prizewinner of a number of international competitions such as the NDR Music Prize for Jazz Conductors, the Leipzig Improvisation Competition (1st Prize), the Europ Jazz Contest and the Wayne Shorter Award, USA.

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