Lenny Altgenug, born on June 16, 1987 in Mannheim (Germany), grew up in a musical family. His parents, both hobby musicians, were influenced by the rock, blues and fusion music of the sixties and seventies. Lenny started to play classical piano at the age of 5. Ten years later, boogie-woogie pianists like Pete Johnson and Jimmy Jancey awakened his interest in jazz. While still in school, Lenny listened to a lot of recordings by Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson and tried to learn some of their compositions and improvisations by ear.
After finishing school, he started studying jazz piano, at first privately with Andy Herrmann for one year, then at the Musikhochschule Mainz with Olaf Polziehn and Sebastian Sternal. For the last two years, he has been continuing his studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with teachers Karel Boehlee and Kris Goessens. His main influences are pianists Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock.
