Born and raised in Salzburg, Austria, Peter Kronreif discovered his passion for the drum-set already in early childhood -“I went to the kitchen, chose cooking spoons, pots and pans, and enthusiastically accompanied the Mozart sonatas my big brother and my mother were playing on recorder and piano.” He picked up the drums at age nine and soon started playing in his father's wind orchestra. In high school Peter got into his first bands playing rock, funk and pop music. “We used to plug our ears and go crazy on Offspring and Greenday songs in the bomb-shelter under my dad’s school”. Inspired by his brother Chris' records (who is a professional saxophonist living in Austria) and his early teachers Christian Lettner and Franz Trattner, Peter started to get into jazz transcribing Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones, forming jazz bands with schoolmates and playing weekly jazz sessions at a local bar in Salzburg- his first steps on what proved to be a long journey.

After graduating highschool Kronreif went to Graz (A) to study Jazz at the University of Arts with Alex Deutsch, he then transferred to the Anton Bruckner University in Linz (A) where he completed his Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in 2007 with first-class honors, studying with Doug Hammond and later, in the master's program, with Jeff Boudreaux. “I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet and study with these awesome drummers and great humans; and I would definitely not be where I am today without their inspiration and guidance.” His masters degree he also finished with first-class honors in 2019.

From 2004 to 2010 Peter Kronreif lived in Vienna (A) and became a most-wanted sideman in Austria’s Jazz-scene. Working with, amongst others, Harry Sokal, Martin Reiter, Michel Matthieu, Alegre Correa, Bastian Stein, Ana Paola DaSilva, Peter O'Mara, Fabian Rucker, Pepe Auer and Phil Nykrin brought him on tour in over 20 nations. In 2010 he was awarded the Hans Koller Prize as “Sideman of the Year 2009“. He too was granted the "Annual Scholarship for Music 2010" by the city of Salzburg as well as a studying grant from the Ministry of Arts & Culture.

Over these years in Vienna he started visiting New York City for a few months each year –wanting to hear his idols play, to get inspired by the scene and to be able to study with drummers like Greg Hutchinson, Jonathan Blake and John Riley. In 2010 Peter was granted an Artist Visa and moved to the Big Apple, to Brooklyn, where he currently lives and works most of the year. After two European tours with his own band WAYFARERS in 2010 and 2012 Kronreif became too busy as a sideman - working with numerous artists in the NYC music scene over a variety of genres while still being on the road a lot with artists like Seamus Blake, Florian Hoefner Quartet, Le Boeuf Brothers, Thana Alexa, Immigration Booth, Allan Harris and others put bandleader ambitions on hold for a few years.

With the new release “Aeronautics” Kronreif is ready to lift off with his own band project in 2021 yet again.

https://www.peterkronreif.com/biography.html