"Saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Rob Hall has forged a highly individual path in music, consistently producing engaging, expressive and exploratory work that straddles genres. Tours, performances, recordings and broadcasts have taken him across the UK from Shetland to Penzance, and abroad to countries in four continents. Broadcasts, both recorded and live, have included BBC Radio2, BBC Radio3, JazzFM, BBC Scotland & BBC TV.

Rob has appeared in performance and on recordings with artists as diverse as Kenny Wheeler, Jim Mullen, Dan Gottlieb, Dave O'Higgins, Phil Cunningham, Simon Thoumire, Roddy Woomble, Chick Lyall, Philipp van Endert, David Patrick Octet, Steven Osborne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ballet, Paragon Ensemble Scotland, Manchester Camerata and others. He has worked under the baton of leading conductors such as Martyn Brabbins, Ilan Volkov and Clark Rundell involving composer collaborations such as with Steve Martland. Festival appearances include Edinburgh International and Jazz festivals, Bath, Cheltenham, Celtic Connections, Prague International, BBC Proms as well as being a featured artist at Liverpool Jazz Festival, the Highland Festival, and Glastonbury Jazz Stage.

Rob's own CD releases are on the FMR contemporary music label numbering nine to date. His debut CD Open Up in 1997, featuring guitarist Jim Mullen, attracted excellent reviews, soon followed by Heading North with his London based touring quartet, preceding his own move to Scotland in 1999. In 2001 Rob was commissioned by the Highland Festival to write a performance piece A Highland Canvas in collaboration with visual artists John McGeogh (video) and James Hawkins (artist). This multi-media project received support from the Royal Scottish Conservatoire as did Rob's third CD Free-world Music with his group Freewheelers, released in July 2002.

2005 saw the release of The Beaten Path with what has developed into a long and fruitful duo partnership with Scottish pianist and composer Chick Lyall spawning a further five CD recordings on FMR. 2010 saw the premiere of Borderland a large scale commission for big band. In 2011 Scottish Jazz Expo promoted Rob Hall & Chick Lyall internationally at jazz festivals in Italy and Edinburgh where they released their CD Blithe Spirit. The Vine & the Fig Tree commissioned by the Devon based choral group eXe Singers premiered on Remembrance Day in Nov 2011. Chronicles by Rob Hall & Chick Lyall was released in Aug 2013 introducing live electronics and bass clarinet into the duo's compass, and the pair followed this by returning to an acoustic piano & clarinets album Myth in 2016 featuring a suite of 12 miniatures by the Greek composer Giannis Konstantinidis. The duo broadened the scope and instrumentation of their work with electronics incorporating wind synth and baritone sax on their 2020 release Upward Fall. 2023 saw a new pan-European trio form with two musicians from the German jazz scene, guitarist Philipp van Endert and keyboardist Tobias Weindorf. The Tret Trio debut album Crow Jam was released jointly by JazzSick Records and FMR in 2025.

Rob has contributed to the UK gospel music scene, performing and recording in venues such as Usher Hall Edinburgh and Waterfront Belfast. He has appeared with New Scottish Arts, Praise Gathering, Keith & Christine Getty, Graham Kendrick, Onaje Jefferson, Origin Scotland (Big Band & Symphony Orch) and he has contributed session work for producers such as Graeme Duffin. In 2022 he was appointed as Music Director for Carstairs Parish Church in the Clyde Valley.

An active composer, he has written music and undertaken commissions for large and small ensembles and solo works both in classical and jazz genres with many performances and recordings. These include works for choirs, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, and numerous compositions for small jazz ensembles. His music has been performed in such venues as London's Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican , Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and RNCM Concert Hall Manchester.

Spartan Press published Rob's first book Eight Escapes for Piano in 2015 with a follow up Eleven More Escapes for Piano in 2016. Eighteen Easy Escapes completed the series in 2017 from which an arrangement has been on the ABRSM Piano syllabus since 2021. The entire Escapes for Piano series was reassigned to Stainer& Bell (Clifton Edition) in 2023. A commission from ABRSM received worldwide publication in their Piano Exam Pieces 2017-18 selling over 140,000 copies. Brasswind published Full Speed Ahead for Clarinet in 2020 with four pieces picked by Trinity College for their 2023- Clarinet syllabus. Forton Music published a Sonata for Clarinet & Piano & Tourama for Sax in 2022, followed by a Sonatina for Alto Sax & Piano and Fifteen Flute Sculptures in 2023. Close Encounters for Clarinet & Piano was published 2024 (Stainer&Bell/Clifton Edition) with a sequel suite for Alto Saxophone in 2025.

As an educator Rob has extensive mentoring and coaching experience with all sectors from Primary level through to Higher and Adult education. He runs his own teaching practice The Music Workshop and his tireless commitment to jazz education over more than three decades has benefited hundreds of aspiring and professional musicians. For 10 years he ran programmes through his company Jazz Course UK including residential summer schools.

He currently teaches single reeds for Edinburgh University and St Mary's Music School. Past positions have included Assistant Harmony Tutor at Berklee College of Music USA, Jazz Improvisation Lecturer at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire.

As an ABRSM examiner in both jazz and classical disciplines Rob has toured extensively in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Arab States, New Zealand, Turkey & China. He has adjudicated for festivals, acted as specialist examiner at the RCS and presented CPD training courses for many music organisations.

Directing experience includes RCS Improvisation Ensemble, Glasgow City Big Band and St Mary's Music School Ensembles.

Rob plays Sopranino, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone saxophones, Bb, A, Eb, Bass clarinets, EWI wind synthesiser and Piano.

Born in 1969 into a musical family he spent his early years in Kent where he took up recorder, piano and clarinet, and later in Essex where he added classical guitar. After a four year period playing clarinet with the Essex Youth Orchestra he went on to study classical music and performance at Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music jointly, gaining a degree and two diplomas.It was here that Rob's interests in contemporary music and composition began to flourish, whilst studying clarinet with John Reynolds, composition with Geoff Poole and saxophone with Gary Cox. In his first term his carol Christe Redemptor Omnium won a competition judged by Scottish composer James MacMillan. He then twice received the Proctor-Gregg Composition Award as well as a Terence Greaves Award for Big Band Writing.He continued his studies for one year as a scholarship student at Berklee College of Music in the USA, where he became a part-time tutor in music harmony before returning to the UK."

"Tobias Weindorf (born June 29, 1980 in Lüdenscheid) is a German jazz musician (piano, composition).

Weindorf received classical piano training. Through the music school's big band and participation in various workshops, he discovered his interest in jazz. He completed his studies at the Cologne University of Music and Dance under John Taylor and Hubert Nuss. During this time, he was also a member of the German Federal Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Peter Herbolzheimer.

In 2008, he founded the Brodersen-Weindorf Quartet with his wife Kristina Brodersen, which has released three albums to date, most recently Parabel in 2021. He also released the duo albums Rabaneo (on the Ajazz label in 2015) and Habakuk (on the Jazzsick label in 2022).[1] With his trio, which includes Gunnar Plümer and Peter Weiss, he released the album Stories to Be Told (also on Jazzsick) in 2017. He has also performed with Ack van Rooyen, Fay Claassen, Thomas Stabenow, Paul Heller, François de Ribaupierre, Matthias Bergmann, Tom Gäbel, the Atlanta Jazzband, the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the Frankfurt Jazz Bigband, and the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz, among others."

"The latest releases of guitar player/composer Philipp van Endert provides further evidence of his sensitive grasp of dramatic tension. Open space and breathing are elements that come to mind when listening to his current projects (from duo, trio up to sextet). Van Endert uncovers and gives new life to the secret force fields of long-discovered melody lines with virtuosic instinct. His music is like a bird's flight of musical fantasy across the resources of our Jazz heritage. It is not an attempt to reinvent coolness, but rather to sharpen sensitivity for the special quality of lyrical creativity. Philipp van Endert impresses with his musical prowess and brings many of his strengths to the fore in his latest beguiling yet weighty Jazz recordings. This guitarist has found the recipe for gratifying Jazz enthusiasts in their quest for meaning...

Since his return from the USA, Philipp van Endert has matured into an individual and distinctive voice in the current jazz scene. He has played several tours, made recordings in America and Europe and has accepted the invitations of many international festivals - among them the well-known Montreux Jazz Festival, The Hague Jazz, Jazz Sur Son Toulouse and Leverkusener Jazztage. His guitar playing, which is energetic whilst also being lyrical, is documented on more than 45 CD releases and has brought him together with jazz greats including Mike Stern, Danny Gottlieb, Lajos Dudas, Jarek Smietana, Karl Berger, Gerd Dudek, Kenny Wheeler, Adrian Mears, Philip Catherine and Rick Margitza.

Nomination for the German Record Award 2006 in the jazz category with the production Philipp van Endert Trio - KHILEBOR (JazzSick Records), winner of the Steven D. Holland Memorial Scholarship, of the Berklee Guitar Department Achievement Award and of the Cultural Promotion Prize of the North Rhine-Westphalian state capital Duesseldorf (1996).

Since 2001 he has also been the manager of the record label JazzSick Records, a label with over 120 CD releases so far in the national and international market.

Since 2009, Philipp van Endert has been assistant professor for jazz and electric guitar at the Institute For Music And Media at the University of Music Duesseldorf and at the Institute for Music Osnabrueck."