Biography
1980-1987 Studies in flute, geography and Romance linguistics in Düsseldorf.
1981-1984 Musical excesses in New York, creation of the “Montauk Music” label.
Also active in France since 1998.
Father of two adult sons who are music critics.
Throughout his career as a composer, flautist, and saxophonist, Johannes Leis has participated in classical, contemporary, and jazz music projects.
He has accompanied silent films, performed with dancers, and drawn inspiration from the work and publications of musicians from Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America.
He is appreciated as an improviser in classical and contemporary music as well as in jazz. Under the title “Parameters and Techniques of Improvisation,” he teaches professional and amateur instrumentalists.
Since 2010, Johannes Leis has taught in music schools and conservatories in the south of France and has participated in flute music conferences in Switzerland, France, and Germany. In 2024, he founded the Flute Institute in Valence.
His work includes “Moondog” (1991), dance and theater productions in Düsseldorf and Wilhelmshaven (until 1995), “Heine Spektakel” in Düsseldorf (1997), “Le Grotorkèstre” and “Kousmine Pichon” (France), “17 Hippies” (Berlin, 2002-2024), and various lounge music productions (since 2001) with Diventa Music and “sol electrico”.
His work currently focuses on collaborations with the Franco-Russian pianist and composer Egor Kurdello, the guitarist Georg Grisloff (Hinterhof Produktionen), Volker Förster (Stargazer) and the French jazz orchestra JAV contreband.