Kitty Hoff & Forêt-Noire

Biography

Kitty Hoff is a german singer and songwriter * Kitty Hoff - vocals, musical saw, accordeon, piano, melodica * Marq Wenzel - piano, rhodes piano * Phil Marone - guitars * Moe Jaksch - double bass, e-bass * Beat Lee Burns - drums, percussion Discography * Rauschen (2005) * Blick ins Tal (2007) * Zuhause (2009) * Curiose Geschichten (2010) Growing up in a small village near Münster, Kitty’s life early starts being influenced by the arts. Only three years old, she plays flute, at the age of four...

Kitty Hoff is a german singer and songwriter
* Kitty Hoff - vocals, musical saw, accordeon, piano, melodica
* Marq Wenzel - piano, rhodes piano
* Phil Marone - guitars
* Moe Jaksch - double bass, e-bass
* Beat Lee Burns - drums, percussion

Discography
* Rauschen (2005)
* Blick ins Tal (2007)
* Zuhause (2009)
* Curiose Geschichten (2010)


Growing up in a small village near Münster, Kitty’s life early starts being influenced by the arts. Only three years old, she plays flute, at the age of four she finds herself in front of a piano. Playing violin is the next consequent step, before she begins singing choir together with her father. Her initial choice of profession is psychologist, to follow in her dad’s footsteps. But the love for music is stronger in the end. Her collaboration with a pianist results in several lieder recitals near her hometown and an award in the category »Jugend musiziert«. After marrying «Mister Right« already at an early age and giving birth to the children Julius and Rosalie, she decides to go the »Theatre an der Wien« in order to study Acting, Singing and Dancing which she resumes at »Folkwang College Essen«. Kitty’s next step to climb up the career ladder is to move to Berlin where she receives a recording scholarship. Kitty never stops to polish her skills and takes a master class with Gisela May, a famous Brecht-actor. She becomes a member of a nine-headed all-female band to bring back the Swing of the 20s, but that’s just another stepping stone to her. She meets the four musicians Beat Lee Burns, Phil Marone, Moe Jaksch and Marq Wenzel and clicks with them in no time. They call themselves »Forêt-Noire« and, from this point on, act as her backup-band. After recording some songs with the guys, the record label Virgin/EMI takes notice of the talent and signs the rising artists to a contract. In 2005 her debut »Rauschen« gets released. Praised by the critics Kitty Hoff and her band soon come to be an insider’s tip. Several awards follow: She is awarded twice at Federal Singing Contest Berlin in the categories »Chanson« and »Song«, receives the sponsorship awards »Young Poets« (Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung) and «List of best Germanspeaking songs«. Furthermore, the Goethe-Institute recognizes her talent and importance for the German language and gives her a sponsorship. In February 2007 »Blick ins Tal«, the follow-up to »Rauschen« comes out, underlining the obvious talents of this fabulous artist. The whole album through Kitty manages to masterly juggle with the German language, amusingly yet poetically at the same time, accompanied by a diversified mix of chanson, jazz and pop elements, as far as strange eguitarsounds and reggae influences. Her success story continues in 2008, as the jury of the »Lale-Andersen-Award« unanimously voted her as the next laureate. At the end of April 2009 Kitty Hoff’s brand-new album will be released by legendary jazz-label »Blue Note Records«, making her the first female German artist signed to this record company. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.