Ike Moriz

Eike Moriz (born May 14, 1972), better known as Ike Moriz, is a German-South African singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and actor.

He has released 20 albums in the indie rock, pop, Latin, easy listening, dance, lounge, blues, jazz and swing genres.

Ike Moriz grew up in Wentorf near Hamburg, Germany.

The son of the jewellers Kai and Waltraud Moriz attended the Wentorf primary school from 1978 and thereafter from 1982 the Wentorf grammar school, where he was also head boy from 1988 to 1989.

During this time he acted in theatre plays directed by Hans Bittner, who was also his piano teacher.

After graduating in 1991, he completed his compulsory one-year military service.

From 1992 to 1993 he went to South Africa to work on his uncle's citrus farm in Clanwilliam in the Western Cape.

Returning to Hamburg, Moriz studied economics at the University of Hamburg from 1993 to 1995 and gave his first concerts as the lead singer of several rock bands.

He also played his first parts in English-language theatre plays.

He then studied jazz, rock and pop music at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden from 1995 to 1999 under Professor Hanns-Herbert Schulz.

As part of his course, he took part in a twelve-months student exchange programme at the South African College of Music in Cape Town and the Conservatory of Music in Rotterdam (Erasmus Programme) from 1997 to 1998.

He received two degrees (Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music Education).

Ike Moriz lived in London from late 1999 to early 2005.

Initially, he performed as a street musician, then as the lead vocalist and keyboard player of the indie rock band Stunt Double and eventually as a solo singer with a backup band.

The new style opened the door to an even larger audience, especially in the so-called African capital of jazz, Cape Town, where the fourth largest jazz festival in the world has been held annually since 2000.

In the same year he published the Christmas album Starry Night, for which he also filmed a music video in Germany at the Hamburg observatory where he also performed several times at the vision sternwARTe'' ' festival on occasion of its 100-year anniversary.

Since moving to South Africa, Moriz has recorded all of his albums and singles at Paris Recording Studios in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, where he has also produced other artists (such as Brothers With Voices Cape Town).

In 2002 Moriz played his first leading role in the American musical Saving Anne at the Greenwich Theatre.

He founded his record company, Mosquito Records London Pty Ltd., and recorded his first hit single Fall Into The Sun at Tin Pan Alley Studios in 2002 with producer Steve Kent.

This was followed by his first two solo albums, which he recorded and produced at Motion Studios from 2002 to 2005.

They were mixed and mastered by Alan van Kleef.

Moriz's songs reached number one on various radio stations in the UK, the Netherlands, South Africa and Germany and were played on the radio in seventeen countries around the world.

British singer David Bowie voted Ike Moriz's songs 'Top Song of the Week ' several times on his website.

In 2004 Moriz performed at the Ukkasie Arts Festival in London with several other South African artists such as Heinz Winckler, Nianell and Steve Hofmeyr.

Moriz also played minor roles and cameos in international feature films such as Alfie (2004), Shanghai Knights (2003) and Love Actually (2003), as well as in South African and British TV series such as EastEnders, Strike Back: Project Dawn (2011), Backstage (2006) and The Bill.

Moriz has been living officially in South Africa since May 2005, where he immediately received a lot of media coverage with his second album Play Me and its single releases I Feel Real and Play Me.

With national television and radio interviews, music videos, appearances in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and articles in magazines and daily newspapers, he quickly became known nationwide and was voted one of the country's top five singers in 2006.

This was followed by another album in the pop-rock genre, All Around The World (2007), which he presented for the first time with launch concerts at FashionTV cafés in both Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The album launch in Cape Town took place at the same time as CD launch parties in Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain.

Moriz performs regularly with a variety of accompanying musicians in Cape Town and Johannesburg, e.g., at Oude Libertas Amphitheatre, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, numerous hotels and various clubs, theatres and wine farms.

In April 2008 he gave a concert on the occasion of the 125th anniversary celebration of the German International School Cape Town.

In 2008, Moriz, who was previously known mainly as an indie pop and rock singer, began to explore a variety of other styles, starting with the release of his Stardust trilogy (2009), which consisted of three albums in the swing and jazz genre.

Between 2010 and 2016, seven more jazz and swing albums followed, as well as albums in the easy listening, Latin, lounge, blues and pop-rock genres, such as his swing albums Siren Terpsichore (2012) and Love Swings (2015) and the blues album At Last (2014).

In 2018, after his album Gold Rush (2017), Moriz, for the first time, released a ‘best-of’ compilation album entitled Millennium Hits 2002-2018.

In April of the same year, Moriz's first Afrikaans-language single was released, a cover of the Louis van Rensburg song Voshaarnooi.

Moriz's latest album, Dragons, was released on his birthday on May 14, 2020, during the South African COVID-19 lockdown, along with the music video of his song Say Your Name.

Moriz did embark on a short 'Dragons Tour' with saxophonist Kurt Buschmann in Germany in late 2021 and in summer 2022 to promote his new album.

During the tour he performed at castle Vietgest, St. Michael's Church, Hamburg as well as castle Reinbek where he performed Billy Joel's anti war song Leningrad during an interview on the German TV channel NDR 3.

Moriz returned to Northern Germany for another tour from late June to early August 2023 performing with saophonists Kurt Buschmann and Leandro Saint-Hill as well as South African pianist Charl du Plessis.

The versatile songwriter sings in English, but has also sung songs in German, Afrikaans, Spanish, Xhosa and French.