BIOGRAPHY

SABINE PYRKER

Sabine Pyrker was born in March 1986 in Wels (Upper Austria). Due to her father Martin Pyrker - a famous Austrian blues and boogie-woogie piano player - she grew up in a musical environment. Therefore it was no surprise that she started getting piano lessons at the music school in Wels at the age of seven. Two years later, she began to learn percussion, which she had always wanted to try out. At first, she was particularly interested in the drum set, but soon her teacher Max Murauer could also pique her interest in further instruments, and so in the following years Sabine learned to play all other classical percussion instruments including vibraphone, marimba and timpani.

Eventually, Sabine gave her first public performance at the age of thirteen accompanying her father on the drum set. Soon more concerts followed, including her first international performance in June 2002 in Merano, Italy. Also in 2002, Sabine entered in the Austrian music school contest "prima la musica" for the first time - along with the percussion ensemble "Drums4You". Sabine won the first round in Linz and soon after that accomplished to win the finale in Salzburg too. Motivated by her success, Sabine attended this contest also in the following years, with the positive outcome of placing first again in the finale with ensemble and further victories (also in the finale) as soloist in the years 2003 (including a special award) and 2005.

After passing her Matura exams (Austrian high school graduation), Sabine started to study economics in Linz - as a career as musician was not intended by her at that moment. Nevertheless, due to concerts together with her father Martin Pyrker, Sabine had reached certain popularity in the Austrian blues and boogie-woogie community. Also, in the year 2004 the band "The Rocking Birds" was launched, together with Katie Kern and Karin Daym. More and more performances in the area of Vienna made Sabine move to Vienna. In order to avoid neglecting classical percussion, she started to study it with Professor Leonhard Schmidinger at the Konservatorium Wien University in addition to her economic studies. After moving to Vienna, Sabine also joined the "Joachim Palden Trio" in 2006, which accompanies the established singers Dana Gillespie and Betty Semper.

Before long, it became evident, that Sabine's true love belongs to music, even more after finishing her economics studies in 2008. Besides her performances within the blues and boogie-woogie genre, she soon took part in concerts with classical percussion, both as soloist and in ensemble and orchestra projects. From 2009 to 2017 Sabine was a member of the ensemble of the famous multi-percussionist Martin Grubinger.

Time and again, Sabine has been successful in different contests. In 2010 she won a scholarship of the MA7 Kultur and a price by the Tsuzuki-trust in the first round in the Fidelio-contest of the Konservatorium Wien University. In the finale of this contest, she won the first price (sponsored by HFP Steuerberater), together with Lea Primetzhofer. Furthermore, in 2010 Sabine finished her bachelor studies in classical percussion with distinction, followed by the master diploma - also with distinction - in 2012.

Numerous concerts in the most important concert halls in Austria as well as international performances and concert tours - including Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the USA - bear witness to this versatile young musician's successful career so far.

In 2013 Sabine married her husband Johannes Eitelberger. Their first daghter was born in 2017, followed by twins in 2019. The five-member family lives now in Sabine's hometown Wels.