Kulturna stanica Svilara, Novi Sad, Serbia (2023)
Leonel Kaplan (born November 21, 1973) is an Argentine trumpet player active in free improvisation. He has been part of the international improvised music scene since the early 2000s, performing and recording throughout Latin America, Europe, and the U.S. Kaplan worked with percussionist Diego Chamy first (1999-2005). Kaplan and Chamy collaborated during that time, going on tours and recording with Axel Dörner, Le Quan Ninh, Michel Doneda, Wade Matthews, Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley, and Ivar Grydeland, among others. In 2005, after daily rehearsals and exploration for 20 days in upstate New York, Kaplan formed Silo Trio with trumpeter Nate Wooley and cellist Audrey Chen. The trio released "Silo Trio" (Utech Records) the same year and toured Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and England in the winter of 2006. In late September, they traveled through the Midwest, South, and East Coast of the U.S. Since 2007, he has been working in a duo with Christof Kurzmann, which is now his longest collaboration. Kaplan and Kurzmann's music has been showcased in recordings such as "Pandemic Conversations" (2022, Catalytic Artist), "Improvised Music from Buenos Aires" (2019, ESP' Disk), "Shortening Distances" (2013, with British saxophonist John Butcher), "Casa Corp" (2012), and "Una Casa/Observatorio" (2011). Other recordings by Kaplan during that time include "Moments of Falling Petals" (2009, with Edén Carrasco and Tetuzi Akiyama). In 2011, Kaplan formed a duo with trumpeter Birgit Ulher. Their first album, titled "Stereo Trumpet," was released by Relative Pitch Records in 2015. In 2013, he started a new project with Austrian sine waves minimalistic artist Klaus Filip. The album "Tocando Fondo" was released on Another Timbre in November 2015. Currently, based part-time in Belgrade, Kaplan's work includes a longstanding collaboration with light artist Aleksandra Stratimirovic, featuring compositions like "Waves" (2018), "Underworld" (2019), "Brilliance" (2020), and "Great Minds" (2022). He can also be found playing regularly with Marina Džukljev and Ilia Belorukov.