Musical career

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Frederik Diehl teaches music and romance languages at a high school in Mannheim, Germany, that specializes in the teaching of music. He studied music education at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, majoring in piano under Christoph Back and conducting under Klaus Eisenmann and Gerald Kegelmann.

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Interdisciplinary approaches to learning have always interested him: In his youth, Diehl took both traditional piano and modern drum lessons; more recently, pupils of his have won song-writing competitions for schools in France and Germany.

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Even at university, where classical music predominated, Diehl retained his passion for popular music. Besides performing as an orchestra percussionist and choral singer, he took drum lessons with jazz and popular music drummers Keith Copeland, Peter Lübke, and Michael Küttner, and played drums in the university’s salsa band, a jazz trio, various rock and jazz formations, and in numerous semi-professional musicals. He has been a teacher for 18 years, and is head of music at his current school, where he also runs the chamber choir and big band.

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In the course of his musical journey, Diehl has collaborated with jazz greats such as Peter Herbolzheimer, Lee Konitz, Klaus Graf, Silke Eberhardt, Thomas Siffling, Erwin Ditzner, and many more. He has also shared his passion for smooth jazz melodies and grooves at workshops and courses, directed Karlsruhe’s JAZZiKA jazz choir for 18 years, and attended courses held by, among others, Anders Jalkeus, Anders Edenroth, Kirby Shaw, Erik Sohn, and Bertrand Gröger. He sang in the Chamber Choir of Europe, the Studio Vocale Karlsruhe choir, and the Ensemble Mannheim Vocal choir and is a cofounder and member of The Lords of the Chords, an a capella group founded in 2004.

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