Steffen Schorn had trumpet lessons since 1973, began composing two years later and switched to the saxophone in 1981, which he learnt as an autodidact. Since 1986, he has been a member of the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Jazz Orchestra (until 1990), the Federal Youth Orchestra in the classical music section (1986-88) and the Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra (1987-91). From 1988 to 1992, he studied jazz saxophone at the Cologne University of Music. Between 1990 and 1996, he was also enrolled in Rotterdam to study bass clarinet, specialising in contemporary music.
Together with Klaus Graf, Schorn founded the Timeless Art Orchestra in 1990. Around the same time, he also began his collaboration with Claudio Puntin, with whom he also played with Hermeto Pascoal in 1992 (he also performed with Pascoal’s group in Europe in 2005). He has also been a member of the Cologne Saxophone Mafia since 1994. Since 1996 he has led the Bobby Burgess Big Band Explosion; since 1997 he has been the baritone saxophonist of the NDR Big Band.
In addition to his main instrument, the baritone saxophone, Schorn also uses numerous other woodwind instruments, some of which are very rarely used, such as the piccolo and bass flute, the bass saxophone, the contra-alto clarinet, the contra-bass clarinet and the tuba. Some of his compositions reach beyond the jazz genre.
Schorn has played in the George Gruntz Concert Band, with Joachim Kühn, Don Cherry, Sheila Jordan, Michael Brecker, Ray Anderson, Shirley Bassey, Uri Caine, Aki Takase, Gary Burton, Dianne Reeves, Al Jarreau, Natalie Cole, Nils Landgren, Dino Saluzzi, Klaus König, Lars Møller, Lucas Niggli and Nils Wogram, among others.
After reaching the final of the European Jazz Competition, he won numerous competitions as a soloist and in ensembles and received many awards (including several quarterly prizes from the German Record Critics and the WDR Jazz Prize for Composition).
He has been a professor at the jazz department of the Nuremberg University of Music since 2001. There he leads the jazz composition class, teaches saxophone and ensemble playing and is artistically responsible for jazz lessons.
