HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Michael Amandus Quast was born 1973 in Hannover, Germany into a rather musical family. His mother and sister played piano and his grandmother as well as all her sisters played violin.
After six years of being classically trained on the piano Amandus wanted to quit piano lessons. He felt more and more uncomfortable to be ruled by a teacher. His mom was smart enough to find a jazz teacher for him (Johannes Klose). After learning his first jazz chord on the piano with his new teacher, Amandus realized that this was the music he had always been looking for and was instantly inspired by the coolness of jazz chords and the freedom of improvisation.
Being raised by a single mother without a father, Amandus suffered from the lack of love by his father and found healing and comfort in the music he now learned to play.
Having found jazz and improvisation as a new driving force for his own well-being, Amandus quickly began to play in a students big band in the 1980s, where he also got his first award for an improvised solo by a sponsoring local bank. (Jazzpreis Sparkasse Hannover).
Not any older than 17, Amandus was sent by his family to spend a year in the US as an exchange student in Harrisburg, South Dakota. Being totally excited to spend such a long period of time in the country where jazz was born, Amandus instantly began to play in the High School Big Band and Concert Band. Not only did he join the jam session in the state capital, Sioux Falls, but Amandus also made it into the South Dakota All State Jazz Band and was allowed to tour an entire week through South Dakota and the neighbouring states. For writing a Big Band chart for the Harrisburg High School Big Band, Amandus earned the Jack Reynolds Jazz Award in 1992.
Back in Germany Amandus finished High School with very good grades and unfortunately didn’t follow his passion but instead decided to get a degree in physics instead of music. So he went off to Heidelberg, Germany to face four years of studying science. Luckily his passion for music never left him and helped him overcome these years of depression because he could not pursue his musical dreams. Nevertheless Amandus practiced 4 hours a day and moreover, the Amercian community in Heidelberg was so big that he quickly found musicians to play and grow with.
By the year 2000 Amandus’s network was strong enough to leave science and support his life only playing music. He played and arranged for several cabarets and variete shows around southern germany. He accompanied many singers and one special point in his career was when he toured Europe and the Near East with 80s star Paul Young from 2006 til 2010 as his keyboard player.
Having produced two CDs for Silke Hauck, Mannheim and having been very busy gigwise, Amandus started again writing smooth jazz songs around 2010, althoug his first smoothjazz composition dates back to 1997.
In 2016 it became more and more clear that he would soon record his first Smooth Jazz album, which was titled „Sing a Song“ and came out in 2020. Not being held back by the pandemic, Amandus continued to write and released his second album, the EP „Groove Infection“ in 2022. With more than 350000 streams on Amazon Unlimited, Amandus got a silver medal at the Global Music Awards for the EP „Groove Infection“ in the categories Smooth Jazz and Instrumentalist.
Following up to this success, Amandus continued to write and released the single „Baby it’s up to you feat. Uli Brodersen“ as well as his latest EP „Her Love“ in 2023.
Amandus has two kids and lives in Leimen, Germany. He teaches at Schwetzingen Music School as well as at SRH Heidelberg (music therapy).