Meinrad Kneer is a double bass player, composer, improviser, bandleader and label owner. His music moves along the musical boundaries of jazz, improvised, contemporary-composed and ethnic music.
He studied double bass and music in the Netherlands (conservatories of Hilversum and Amsterdam), where he quickly entered the Dutch jazz- and subsequently the international scene of free improvised music.
In 2002 he receives with the band Dalgoo one of the most prestigious Dutch music awards: the ‚Jur Naessens Muziek Prijs‘ for the project ‚New Anatomy‘, which was inspired by the work of the Russian writer Daniil Kharms.
His compositional work has been supported between 2001-2011 throughout by the Dutch ‚Funds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst‘ (today ‚Funds Podiumkunsten‘) and in 2013, after moving to Berlin, he recieved a grant from the Berlin senate to compose music for his Phosphoros Ensemble.
From 2007 to 2011 he organized the concert series ‚U-Ex(perimental)‘ devoted to free improvisation, in cooperation with flutist Mark Alban Lotz, the Centraal Museum and the SJU Jazz Podium in Utrecht (NL).
Since 2011/2012 he lives in Berlin.
He currently leads the Meinrad Kneer Quintet, the Trio Baars / Kneer / Elgart, the Phosphoros Ensemble, and works as a co-leader in the groups Dalgoo, Rose/ Kneer/ Barrett and Sequoia.
He also plays a.o. with the following ensembles: Julie Sassoon Quartet, Oğuz Büyükberber Trio, Andreas Willers’ “7of8”, Peter Van Huffel Octet and Bite the Gnatze, and worked with musicians as Najma Akhtar, Richard Barrett, Johannes Bauer, Han Bennink, Iva Bittová, Axel Dörner, Bill Elgart, Ceylan Ertem, Fred Frith, Tristan Honsinger, Paul Lovens, Roscoe Mitchell, Jon Rose and Elliot Sharp, and ensembles as different Baraná formations, the Ab Baars Quartet, House of Mirrors, the Gravitones, Play Station 6, the Astronotes, the Joost Buis tentet, the AXYZ-Ensemble, the bigtet Tetzepi, the Ig Henneman String Quartet, the Marc Sinan Company, the KNM Esemble and realized, with his own bands and as a side man, over 30 records.
During the last 20 years he has been touring extensively in most countries of Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, North Africa and Mexico.
His internationally renowned label Evil Rabbit Records, founded together with pianist Albert van Veenendaal in 2006, is dedicated to contemporary improvised music rooted in the European culture.