Cathrin Pfeifer, easily the best piano accordionist on the German folk and world music scene, studied classical accordion at the University "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin and received a degree in music at 1985.
She worked as a musician in the theatre production of "The Egg" (1985/86), then joined the German Folk Band Jams for five years and returned to the theatre (dance theatre "Scoronel" and dance workshop "Sascha Waltz & guests" in Brazil). Since then she has worked with numerous musicians and bands: Ahava Raba, a Berlin-based band playing improvised music with Yiddish and East European roots, Egypt’s Ali Hassan Kuban and Leipzig’s Bierfiedler, Zimbabwe’s Stella Chiweshe and Berlin’s Keimzeit.
Her latest musical encounter is an accordion-percussion duet with Argentinean-born Topo Gioia, a congenial partnership that manifests itself in inspiring, exciting rhythms.
In 1997 she joined together with Gioia US-saxophonist Steve Lacy’s international project "The Cry".
In 1995 Cathrin Pfeifer recorded the CD Pânico Na Panificadora ("Panic At The Bakery") with Gioia and percussionist Andreas Weiser. This recording shows the very personal style of Cathrin Pfeifer’s music, creating moods between a street carnival and a journey through a tropical rain forest, with a touch of Russian melancholy, French stylishness and Irish spontaneity. There is room for cheerful, vivacious exhilaration as much as for elegiac and contemplative moments. Far too many artists try to demonstrate their virtuosity in a race for notes to the bar. There are fast rhythms in Cathrin Pfeifer’s favourite country, in Brazil, and in percussionist Topo Gioia’s homeland, Argentina. But Cathrin Pfeifer has the sovereignty not to trade emotion, expression and poetry for superficially stunning high speed. Just listen to the calm elegance in which she depicts this „Panic At The Bakery“, the title track of the album.