Michael Gustorff is one of the very few violin players who has specialized in jazz and other forms of improvised music. He was born in Leverkusen (Germany) in 1958. He studied classical music at the "Musikhochschule Duisburg" and jazz at the conservatories in Amsterdam and Arnhem (The Netherlands). Like many violinists, the first jazz band he played with was a gipsy swing or "hot club de France" band. He played with the "Rigo Winterstein Swingtet", the "Danny Weiss Ensemble" a.o. As a member of the "Vania Hot Swing Quartet" he won the competition organized by the International Jazz Festival Breda (The Netherlands).

In the late eighties he introduced his own band, the "Michael Gustorff Quartet" at the North Sea Jazz Festival (The Hague). Since then he has also been a member of the "Dick de Graaf Septet", one of the best modern jazz bands in Holland, with whom he has recorded 5 CDs. In the following years he played and recorded with a great variety of bands including German singer Uli Wewelsiep's "Blue Voice", the Mexican band "Mexico Lindo", the "European Danzon Orchestra", the cajun band "Casual Balance", the guitar duo Cor Mutsers/Patrick van Gerwen.....

He has toured with different bands and as a soloist all over Europe (Viersen, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Imatra, Dublin), throughout Canada (Jazz Festivals in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto...) and to India. He has also worked as a guest soloist with several big bands: the "Rias Big Band" (Radio big band Berlin), the "Millenium Jazz Orchestra" and the "Guus Tangelder Big Band" (the Netherlands).....

Besides that Michael has worked as a musical supervisor with the musical group "Ventura". He also produced the CD of the musical.

Since 2003 he is a member of the cross-over trio "Strings Up" and he plays as a guest soloist with different bands.

Michael Gustorff teaches jazz violin, ensembles and mental training at the 'ArtEZ Institute of the Arts' (Arnhem, Netherlands) and the "Hochschule für Musik Köln" (Cologne, Germany). He gives mental training workshops, individual coachings and is the author of the book "Practising without Problems" - Mental Training for (Jazz)musicians.