Monday, 26 October 2026
The Harry Pepl Archive is online
Over the past months this archive has grown step by step.
![Black-and-white portrait: Harry Pepl sits with a jazz guitar in his arms and looks into the camera; on the wall, the poster of a concert with Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger in Linz („Montag, 14. Mai“ [“Monday, 14 May”]), an effects unit on the right.](/medien/fotos/harry-pepl-portrait-archtop-gitarre-1600.webp)
Today, 26 October 2026, it officially opens. The date was chosen deliberately: on Austria’s National Day in 2015, eleven years ago today, Ö1, the cultural radio station of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, devoted a major portrait to Harry Pepl in its music series “Spielräume”. Klaus Wienerroither, guitarist and Ö1 music editor and presenter, called it “Heimat bis Du großer...” (a play on “Heimat bist du großer Söhne”, “homeland of great sons”, a line from the Austrian national anthem) and said right at the start: “In this case it really is one of the sons.” Harry Pepl played with Benny Goodman at the Berlin Philharmonie in Germany, recorded with Jack DeJohnette for the renowned European jazz label ECM, was a member of the band of the clarinettist and saxophonist Michel Portal in France, wrote for the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet and was one of the first jazz guitarists to play a MIDI guitar. As of 23 October 2026, the archive lists 114 releases, 193 works, 278 people, 276 chronology entries, 413 press documents, 171 photos, 49 videos and 318 quotations, every entry with its source. By far the greater part of the estate has not yet been examined; anyone who has photos, live recordings, concert programmes or memories can contribute them.