Justin Zitt

Justin Zitt began playing piano at the age of five. Later, his teacher Christoph Gärtner introduced him to gospel music and gave him the opportunity to accompany his gospel choir. These first concert experiences at the age of 13 were highly formative and laid an important foundation for band interaction and rhythmic skills, which he continued to develop over the following years.

His growing interest in jazz led him to join the “Jazz Juniors” support program of the state of Baden-Württemberg. He was then accepted into the preparatory program at the HMDK Stuttgart with Professor Hubert Nuss. After turning 18, Justin began studying jazz piano in Mannheim with Professor Rainer Böhm and Lorenz Kellhuber. During this time, he further developed his virtuosic improvisational skills and eventually won the International Piano Competition Freiburg (2022), became part of the Gutenberg Jazz Collective at Jazz Campus Mainz (2022/23), and received a scholarship from the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg (2024).

Since summer 2024, he has been pursuing his master’s degree in Jazz Performance at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Harmen Fraanje. As part of this program, he was also given the opportunity to complete an exchange semester at The New School in New York.

As part of the Gutenberg Jazz Collective, he performed with artists such as Ingrid Jensen, Kris Davis, Becca Stevens, Billy Hart and Ben Street. His concert activity has taken him throughout Germany as well as to France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Kenya and Zanzibar, where he has played with renowned musicians including Rich Perry, Wanja Slavin, Mareike Wiening, Nils Landgren, Phil Donkin, Menzel Mutzke, Alex Goodman, Stefan Karl Schmid, Peter Gall and Fabian Arends.