Meinrad Kneer is a double bass player, composer, improviser, band-leader and label owner. His music moves along the musical boundaries of jazz, improvised, contemporary-composed and intercultural music.
He studied double bass and music in the Netherlands (conservatories of Hilversum and Amsterdam), where he quickly entered the Dutch jazz- and subsequently the international scene of free improvisation.
In 2002 he receives one of the most prestigious Dutch music awards: the ‚Jur Naessens Music Award‘ for the project ‚New Anatomy‘, realized with his band ‚Dalgoo‘ and inspired by the work of the Russian writer Daniil Kharms.
His compositional work has been supported between 2001-2011 by the Dutch ‚Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst‘ (today ‚Fonds Podiumkunsten‘) and furtheron he recieved grants from the Berlin senate and the Designing Voices Festival/ Potsdam. In 2020, 2021 and 2022 he won solo stipendia from the Berlin Senate and Musikfonds.
From 2007 to 2011 he organized the concert series ‚U-Ex(perimental)‘ devoted to free improvisation, in cooperation with flutist Mark Alban Lotz, the Centraal Museum and the SJU Jazz Podium in Utrecht (NL).
Since 2011/2012 he lives in Berlin.
He currently leads the Meinrad Kneer Quintet, the Trio Baars / Kneer / Elgart, the Phosphoros Ensemble, and works as a co-leader in the groups Dalgoo, Rose/ Kneer/ Barrett, Van Huffel/ Kneer/ Dimitriadis and others. .
He also plays a.o. with the following ensembles: Julie Sassoon Quartet, Rupp/ Kneer/ Fischerlehner, Büyükberber/ Kneer/ Dimitriadis, Massaria/ Kneer/ Hertenstein and Bite the Gnatze, and worked with musicians as Najma Akhtar, Richard Barrett, Conny Bauer, Johannes Bauer, Han Bennink, Iva Bittová, Jaap Blonk, Tony Buck, Tobias Delius, Axel Dörner, Bill Elgart, Ceylan Ertem, Fred Frith, Paul Hession, Tristan Honsinger, Paul Lovens, Roscoe Mitchell and Jon Rose, and ensembles as different Baraná formations, the Ab Baars Quartet, the Gravitones, Play Station 6, the Astronotes, the Joost Buis tentet, the AXYZ-Ensemble, the bigtet Tetzepi, the Ig Henneman String Quartet, the Marc Sinan Company, the KNM Ensemble and realized, with his own bands and as a side man, over 50 records.
He worked with actors the likes of Susanne Wolff, Therese Hämer, Antje Weber, David Bennent, Jeroen Willems and Uli Pleßmann and performed in concert halls like Elbphilharmonie/ Hamburg, Meistersingersaal/ Nürnberg, Philharmonie / München, Konzerthaus/ Berlin, Philharmonie/ Jena, Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Kampnagel/ Hamburg, etc.
During the last years he has been touring extensively in most countries of Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, North Africa, Mexico and Australia.
His internationally renowned label Evil Rabbit Records is dedicated to contemporary improvised music rooted in the European culture.
Since 2025, he is the artistic director of the newly founded music festival „FEST:Spiele Oberschwaben„, co-curated by recorder player Susanne Fröhlich and guitarist/ composer/ writer Marc Sinan.