50 Years as a Musician on Stage: Robert Schönherr 2026 will be a particularly special year for me as a professional musician: I will celebrate my 50th anniversary on stage. As a teenager, I was already in quite accomplished bands and knew that music would be a lifelong companion. At 13, I played in the "Dealers," where we mainly performed pop and gospel, playing at parties and rhythm festivals. At 17 or 18, in 1976, I was already a member of the Zappa-esque "Hechzl" group, with all members older than me. The bandleader said back then: "If you have a Fender Rhodes, you can play with us." So at 17, I bought my first Fender Rhodes from Peter Wolf, who was leaving for America to become a producer. At that time, the "Arena"—a large factory complex in Vienna's Erdberg district—had been successfully occupied for months. On the evening Leonard Cohen performed a surprising and wonderful concert before many hundreds of people, I immediately followed with a spectacular performance by the "Hechzl Group." That's when I knew for certain I wanted to be a professional musician! This was before any thought of medicine. Later, I studied both music and medicine. This memorable performance at the "Arena" will be exactly 50 years ago in 2026, and because this concert was my milestone for thinking as a professional musician, it will also mark 50 years on the professional jazz stage. I would very much like to celebrate this with a series of performances with "my best band in the world," the Robert Schönherr Quintet. Robert Schönherr, piano Joschi Schneeberger, bass Herwig Gradischnig, tenor saxophone Mario Gonzi
About the concert
