Chronology

1940s

1. 10 September 1945

   Born in Vienna

   Vienna

   Harald “Harry” Pepl was born in Vienna on 10 September 1945 and grew up in Floridsdorf, Vienna’s 21st district north of the Danube. Vienna remained occupied by the four Allies until 1955; in his childhood his father whistled him the jazz standards played on the occupation radio. Through the American stations, the Rot-Weiß-Rot network and the forces’ radio Blue Danube Network, young Viennese heard jazz and swing on a large scale for the first time. The Frankfurter Allgemeine mistakenly gives 1944.

   Life

1960s

1. 1960

   Youth band with Blacky Brandstätter, Franz Handler and Karl Komarek

   Vienna

   Around 1960/61 the young Pepl plays guitar in a Viennese youth band with Blacky Brandstätter, Franz Handler and Karl Komarek, who later played with the Hubbubs; a photo from the estate shows the four with accordion, drums and guitar (names according to the family).

   Life

2. 1 January 1967

   Member of the union for the arts and liberal professions

   Vienna

   On 1 January 1967, aged 21, Pepl joins the Austrian Trade Union Federation, union for the arts and liberal professions (Gewerkschaft Kunst und freie Berufe), musicians' section; the card gives his profession as „Musiker“ [“musician”].

   Life

1970s

1. 1970

   Studio musician in Vienna

   Vienna

   Pepl left the cover band during a tour to become a studio musician and briefly studied at the jazz department of the Vienna Conservatory. There he met Peter Ponger; through Ernst Kugler he found his way into the ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) studio.

   Life

2. August 1977

   Farewell to the ORF Big Band, move to Graz

   Graz

   Pepl ended his contract with the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), wanting to play only jazz from then on. On 10 August 1977 the Burgenländische Freiheit reported that he was to move to Graz, “where he is to take up a teaching post in the jazz department of the university of music”; the guitarist Olaf Weitzer was being discussed as his successor in the band. Pepl had last been heard with his jazz-rock group “Hedgehog” at the three-day festival in Kohfidisch. Guido Jeszenszky began studying with him in Graz that year.

   Life

1980s

1. 1980

   Move to Hernstein

   Hernstein

   Around 1980 Pepl moved to Hernstein in Lower Austria, where he lived until his death and later ran his home studio. His piece “Hernstein 144” carries the address.

   Life

2. May 1989

   First brain haemorrhage

   Graz

   In May 1989 Pepl suffers a first brain haemorrhage; this is what he himself always called it. He recovers well and, according to the family, is afterwards almost more active than before: the album “Schönberg Improvations” and most of his commissioned works in Real-time Composing follow.

   Life

1990s

1. August 1994

   Second brain haemorrhage

   Upper Austria

   In August 1994 Pepl suffers a second brain haemorrhage. From 1994/95 he then withdraws completely from life on tour and from public view; only a few performances follow. For him, who lived from playing together in the moment, this is deeply painful and tragic. Yet he makes the best of it, first at the piano, then with the Lonely Single Swinger Band.

   Life

2. 1996

   Withdrawal from the stage

   Hernstein

   After the two brain haemorrhages of 1989 and 1994 Pepl has withdrawn from life on tour and from public view; the earlier website gives 1996. After 1994 there are no more planned concerts of his own; in December 1997 he joins in once more at the INNtöne festival in Upper Austria, in changing line-ups, mainly on piano and drums. He makes the best of it: first at the piano, because the guitar has become too analytical for him, then in his home studio in Hernstein, Lower Austria, with the Lonely Single Swinger Band, highly productive until 2005. Peter Paul Skrepek records his words: „Jetzt, wo ich alles spielen kann, was ich will, darf ich nicht mehr.“ [“Now that I can play everything I want, I’m no longer allowed to.”]

   Life

3. 1999 to 2001

   Jury member in federal music funding

   Vienna

   From autumn 1999 Pepl sits on juries of the arts section of the Federal Chancellery, each time together with the composer Paul Hertel and the composer and organist Michael Radulescu: in 1999 on the jury for the Förderungspreis für Musik (a federal music prize) in the category of orchestral works, in 2000 on the jury for the Staatsstipendien (state grants) for composers and in the second half of 2001 on the jury for the composition grants. This is recorded in the Kunstberichte, the government’s annual reports to the Austrian parliament on federal arts funding.

   Kunstberichte at the Austrian Parliament: 1999, p. 106; 2000, p. 100; 2001, p. 95

   Life

2000s

1. 10 August 2001

   Death of Werner Pirchner

   Innsbruck

   The vibraphonist and composer Werner Pirchner, Pepl's partner in the Jazzzwio, died on Friday, 10 August 2001, in Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria), aged 61.

   Life

2. 10 September 2005

   60th birthday

   A few months before his death, Pepl celebrated his 60th birthday and, according to Rainer Rygalyk, still had much planned.

   Life

3. 5 December 2005

   Death of Harry Pepl

   Wiener Neustadt

   Harry Pepl died on Monday 5 December 2005, aged 60, in Wiener Neustadt. Several obituaries give Vienna as the place of death; Jazz thing gives 6 December.

   Life

4. 12 December 2005

   Funeral in Hernstein

   Hernstein

   On Monday, 12 December 2005, Harry Pepl lay in state in the parish church of Hernstein (Lower Austria, Austria) and was buried in Hernstein cemetery after a requiem mass, in the presence of many people from the jazz community.

   Life

2020s

1. 10 September 2025

   80th birthday

   Pepl would have turned 80 on Wednesday 10 September 2025. The press text for the album is titled “Harry Pepl 80”.

   Life