Who is Bernard Fichtner?

One could try to answer that question just by listing a few facts and leaving it at that. Something like: Bernard Fichtner is a Canadian born professional musician, or to be more exact, a guitarist. He learned his craft at Berklee College of Music and has worked as a freelancer for many years. 

He performed in numerous jazz clubs, sat in the orchestra pit for many musical productions, enjoyed the fresh breeze at festivals and the dusty atmosphere of small theaters, acted the part of Niki Sullivan in Buddy Holly for three years, was co-recipient of the Flensburg art award for an experimental jazz project "Dances & Images", enjoys teaching, went on tour with various artists, is in demand as a studio musician, composes and arranges, writes music for films and has recently produced his second instrumental-CD "Movin' On“. Just as biographical data says little about a person, his music does not fit into definite categories.   "I have fun playing with sounds and forms," says Bernard Fichtner, "and then something original and authentic usually happens when the music evolves into a form. That´s the seriousness at having fun." He talks about bringing creative energy into a context and trying to synthesize it.
Bernard approaches his teaching activities in a similar way. "Through my dialogue with the students, I am continuously perceiving music from new perspectives. This is an exiting renewal process."

 When asked what the essentials of playing and his own music are to him, he replies: "Improvisation and groove." Bernard Fichtner's background is jazz, that´s where his fun at playing, at melodies and long lines that tell little stories have its origin. And he is also influenced by rock and funk and loves energetic grooves, fusion ideas, soul, rhythm´n blues - and all hat leads back to jazz.

"Groove is communication," he says. "It´s like on stage: You can only perform well when you are in a dialogue with the other players." Therefore teamwork and individual playing belong together in order to give the music its space to unfold. 

"Improvisation is spontaneous composition -                                                      Composition is selective improvisation"                                                               (from John Cage's "Silence")