Ursel Schlicht (Ph.D.) is an internationally active pianist, composer, improviser, scholar and educator. She has played improvised music, jazz, new music and world music throughout Europe, North America, Russia, Mexico and Australia.  Recent performances include: Guelph Jazz Festival (Canada), Festival for Creative Music in Seattle (US), International Music Meeting in Monterrey (Mexico), Melbourne Women's International Jazz Festival (Australia), Symposium für Aktuelle Music and Jazz Festival Kassel (Germany). Schlicht has written for large and small ensembles, dance theater and improvisational scores for silent film.  As an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York, she created a score for F.W. Murnau's silent classic film Faust.

Current projects include duos with flutist-composer Robert Dick, bassist Reuben Radding, guitarist Bruce Arnold (also on live electronics), guitarist Hans Tammen, saxophonist Adam Simmons (Australia), actress Ute Kaiser (Germany), and No Fear Act, a sextet with Ned Rothenberg (reeds), Robert Dick (fl), Tomas Ulrich (vc), Ken Filiano (b) and Klaus Kugel (dr).
Fostering intercultural collaboration has become an important focus of her work. Her ensemble Ex Tempore, formed in 2002, has featured artists from Europe, India, Eritrea, Mali, Japan, Afghanistan and the US.  The current lineup features acclaimed flutist/composer Jamie Baum, balafon virtuoso Balla Kouyate, vocalist Kyoko Kitamura (also electronics), bassist Thomson Kneeland, percussionist and tabla player Ravish Momin, and drummer Take Toriyama.  She has recorded on Leo, Cadence, CIMP, Hybrid, Konnex, Muse-Eek and Nemu Records.

Ursel Schlicht holds a doctorate from the University of Hamburg for her dissertation It's Gotta Be Music First. Zur Bedeutung, Rezeption und Arbeitssituation von Jazzmusikerinnen (Coda, Germany, 2000). She has taught courses on improvisation, music & gender, jazz piano, jazz theory, jazz history, ear training, and introduction to music.  She has taught at the Universities of Kassel and Hamburg, Columbia University, Rutgers University, and is currently teaching at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Collaborations (Selection)

Tom Abbs, Laura Andel, Bruce Arnold, Jamie Baum, Theo Bleckmann, Robert Dick, Leon Dorsey, Dominic Duval, Sandy Evans, Ken Filiano, Christina Fuchs, Lou Grassi, Gabriele Hasler, Ratzo Harris, Lenora Zenzalai Helm, John Hollenbeck, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Kevin James, Olivier Ker Ourio, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Kyoko Kitamura, Balla Kouyate, Klaus Kugel, Hakim Ludin, Geoff Mann, Denman Maroney, Ravish Momin, Virginia Mayhew, Ravish Momin, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Bob Mover, Dafna Naphtali, Reuben Radding, Tony Romano, Jay Rosen, Ned Rothenberg, C. Bryan Rulon, Dr. Salamat Schiftah, Matthias Schubert, Adam Simmons, Uli Sobotta, Martin Speicher, Steve Swell, Richard Tabnik, Hans Tammen, Brandon Terzic, Nurit Tilles, Tomas Ulrich, Petras Vysniauskas, Anne Wellmer.