Philip Yaeger

Born into a musical farm family in Northern Maine, Philip Yaeger learned to sing as soon as he could talk. At the age of ten he began playing the trombone, and soon discovered his first great love (in the inanimate sense)– jazz.  He attended William Paterson University, studying under master musicians like Rufus Reid, Sy Johnson, Steve Turre, Conrad Herwig, and Ed Neumeister,  and received a bachelor’s degree in jazz performance in 1999. Thereafter, he lived for some years as a freelance musician (and messenger, and executive assistant, and caterer) in New York City and Philadelphia.

In 2004 he relocated to Austria, where he annexed a master’s degree at the Arts University in Graz, studying (again) with Ed Neumeister and, briefly, the composer Georg Friedrich Haas. He subsequently moved to Vienna, where he lives and works to this day.

Yaeger has worked for decades as a trombonist, composer/arranger, and occasional vocalist, writing and performing jazz of all descriptions, pop, soul, hip-hop, electronica, and contemporary classical music. He has performed with a large number of artists, including folks like Ari Hoenig, Max Nagl, David Murray, Wolfgang Puschnig, Uri Caine, Ursula Rucker, Die Strottern, and Soap&Skin.

He has a longstanding relationship with the Jazzorchester Vorarlberg as trombonist and house composer/arranger. He has also written commissioned works for the likes of Studio Dan, the Rheingold Quartet, the Symphonic and Brass Bands of Vorarlberg, the collective OnQ and the Jazzwerkstatt initiatives in Vienna, Graz, and Bern.

Additionally, he does some writing and translating, works with the musicians’ information center mica – music austria advocating for jazz and creative music, and is currently a member of the composition commission for the City of Vienna's cultural department. He lives with his wife, the writer Ulrike Haidacher, and their daughter in Vienna’s 9th District.