About
Johannes "Tscho" Theissing (born December 24, 1959 in Salzburg) is an Austrian violinist and composer whose work moves between classical and modern jazz.
Theissing received his musical education in his hometown at the Mozarteum and at the Academy of Music in Graz, where he graduated in 1987 with a concert diploma, in addition he studied musicology at the University of Graz. Already in 1985 he founded with Heinrich von Kalnein and Christian Muthspiel the Orchesterforum Graz, which stood out in the crossover area and recorded the album "Aus dem Tagebuch der Grenzgänger". In addition, he played with Muthspiel, Alex German and Ewald Oberleitner in the group Fidelio & Blasius Freebop and was involved during the Styrian Autumn 1985 at the performance of the jazz opera "The Holy Grail of Jazz" by George Gruntz. He then founded the group The Birds of Europe in Vienna, which in 1989 released the album of the same name. Since 1990 he has worked in the orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper as Tuttigeiger (Vorgeiger 2nd violin). In addition, he founded the jazz-arrested string quartet "Motus Quartet". With John Wolf Brennan, Arkady Shilkloper and Georg Breinschmid (since 2014 Tom Götze) he formed the ensemble Pago Libre, with whom he presented various albums. In the project Mussorgsky Dis-Covered he worked with the mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kulman the music of Mussorgsky in an unorthodox way.
Theissing was also involved in projects by Bobby McFerrin, Sheila Jordan, James Newton, Heiner Goebbels, Werner Pirchner, Alex Cline, Wolfgang Mitterer, Tom Cora, the extreme Schrammeln and Vinko Globokar and led with the ensembles the row and Klangforum Wien Neue Musik. He often accompanies the performances of Michael Heltau with his ensemble and collaborates with Karl Hodina.