Biography
Christian at the age of 8 years
Christian Radovan was born on the 7th of May in Linz, Austria.
When he was 7 years old, he and his family moved to Pretoria
(Tschwane) South Africa where 2 years of his schooling was
spent at the Rudolf Steiner School, a place where music was an
important part of the program and Christian felt that his musical
talent was nurtured and given the freedom to develop.
Christian’s love of music was also encouraged by his father,
a euphonium player who often rehearsed his 7-piece band at home,
giving him the joyous possibility to hear musicians play live.
When one day Christian found an old trombone at the back of a
wardrobe that his father had won in a raffle, he was entranced
and knew that he and this beautiful instrument would
become life-long partners.
"Okto Plus" in Johannesburg, 1977
Soon after this musical discovery he met the South African jazz
trombonist, Jon Davies, who encouraged and supported him whilst
opening the door to the world to jazz by inviting him to play in his band,
“Okto Plus,” which was playing regularly in the jazz clubs of
Pretoria and Johannesburg.
At the same time he was listening to J.J. Johnson, Frank Rosolino
and Bill Watrous, soaking up the sounds of the masters on LP’s.
When Christian was 16 he moved to Vienna to study at the
Conservatory with Erich Kleinschuster and meet other musicians
including Wolfgang Puschnig, who introduced him to Mathias Ruegg, founder of the
Vienna Art Orchestra, the Orchestra where Christian would spend
the next 17 years playing and touring the USA, Asia, Africa and all of Europe
and performing for many years with many fantastic musicians
such as those listed below.
In 1989 Christian was appointed Senior Trombone lecturer at the
Bruckner University in Linz, where he is still teaching and tutoring
ensembles.
After many years of musical experience in the genres of Jazz,
Pop, Blues, Latin, Soul and World Music, Christian also
composes his own music
which is being performed by different ensembles.
With the Vienna Art Orchestra, 1982
Christian has performed with the following artists:
- Jerry Lewis
- Eumir Deodato
- Chaka Kahn
- Ray Charles
- Natalie Cole
- Jermaine Jackson
- The Pointer Sisters
- Omara Portuondo
- The Temptations
- Gloria Gaynor
- Nina Hagen
- Christoph Schlingensief
- George Tabori
- Vienna Art Orchestra
- Albert Mangelsdorff
- Hans Koller
- Carla Bley
-
Berlin 1988
- Raul de Souza
- Celia Mara
- Joe Zawinul
- George Lewis
- Joseph Bowie
- The Prisoners of Strange
- Slide Hampton
- Django Bates
- Cecil Taylor
- Willem Breuker
- Enrico Rava
- Thomas Stanko
- Harri Stojka
- Karl Ratzer
- Alegre Correa
- Bobby Shew
- Rob Mc Connel
- The Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra
- The Lungau Big Band
- Count Basic
Porgy & Bess Jazz Club, Vienna. 2011
- Rainhard Fendrich
- Christian Kolonovits
- Richard Österreicher Big Band
- Marianne Mendt
- LACJO
- Dancing Stars
- Roberto Blanko
- Uwe Ochsenknecht
- …and many more.
Christian has also played musical shows such as:
- Cats
- Phantom of the Opera
- A Chorus Line
- 42nd Street
- Guys and Dolls
- Ain’t Misbehaven
- …and many more.
