Siggi Loch

August 6th, 1940 Siegfried Loch is born in Stolp/Pomerania, now Slupsk, Poland.
He lives in Merseburg – East Germany, until 1951, when his family resettles in the west of the country (Hannover) In 1955 he experiences his first encounter with jazz, a concert with Sidney Bechet in Hannover From 1956 to 1960 Loch works as an amateur drummer leading his own band Red Onions In 1960 he enters the music business as a representative for the ASD (Auslandssonderdienst – foreign special service) of EMI Electrola From 1962 to 1966 Loch works as label manager jazz and producer for Philips Ton (Phonogram) in Hamburg. His first release as a producer is in December 1962 with Klaus Doldinger. In 1963 the American Folkblues Festival, George Gruntz, Ingfried Hoffmann, Klaus Weiss, Attila Zoller and first commercial success with the Star-Club productions featuring The Searchers, Rattles, Spencer Davis Group, Jerry Lee Lewis and others follow In 1964 Siegfried marries Sissy Loch From 1967 to 1970 he works as founding managing director of Liberty/United Artists Recordsand Metric Music Publishing in Munich.  Continues to work as a producer for (among others) Klaus Doldinger, Jean-Luc Ponty for Pacifc Jazz. He becomes commercially successful with Katja Ebstein and Sigi Schwaab In 1971 Loch becomes founding managing director of WEA Music Hamburg (later WARNER Music Germany) and MUZ Music Publishing Munich. There is no further activity as a producer except Doldinger Jubilee 1975, Coryell/Catherine (for Elektra) und Dave Brubeck/Gerry Mulligan (for Atlantic) In 1975 he is appointed vice-president of WEA International  From 1973 to 1982 Loch is founding member and board member of the Deutsche Phono Akademie (German phonographic academy) From 1975 to 1982 chairmain of German IFPI (German Record Industry Association) From 1983 to 1987 president of WEA Europe Inc. in London In 1988 Siegfried Loch founds ACT Publishing ltd. in London and the music production company ACT Music+Vision in Berlin (with his partners Annette Humpe and Jim Rakete) The year 1989 sees the disbandment of the partnership with Humpe and Rakete 1992 foundation of the ACT Jazz + World-Jazz Label in Hamburg.
Continuation of his activity as a producer with “Jazzpaña - The Mendoza-Mardin Project” (2 Grammy nominations in the USA) 1993 foundation of “emoción”, a label for “The Art Of Flamenco” In 1998 Siegfried Loch is awarded a lifetime achievement award by the German Association of Record Reviewers (Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) 1998 Loch moves from Hamburg to Feldafing / ACT office to Munich 2000 joint anniversaries: August 6th: 60th birthday / 40th anniversary in the music business 2007 Loch moves to Berlin / ACT office remains in Munich 2010 50th anniversary in the music business / ACT receives ECHO Jazz for "label of the year" / Siggi Loch receives Knighthood ("Knight 1st Class of the Order of the Nordstjärneorden") for his services to Swedish culture in Germany 2011 ACT receives the Echo Jazz audience choice award for "Label of the year" for the second time in a row 2012 ACT celebrates its' 20th anniversary with a series of concerts with the ACT Family Band in Germany, France, Sweden and Turkey, several "ACT Piano Summits" and a concert in the chamber music hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. Germany's jazz fans choose ACT for the third time in a row as label of the year at the Echo Jazz. Siggi Loch receives the Skoda Jazz Award at the Jazzahead fair in Bremen 2013 ACT receives the Echo Jazz audience choice award for "Label of the year" for the fourth time in a row On November 3rd, 2014 Siggi Loch receives the "Order of Merit on ribbon" of the Federal Republic of Germany for his achievements that served the nation and earlier, in February 2014 the WDR Jazzpreis for his support of jazz from Germany with the "young german jazz" Series Highlights as photographer: 2007 Book “Love of my Life” Edel / earbooks 2007 exhibition “Love of my Life” at Museum Weserburg, Bremen 2007 Exhibition at Cubus Kunsthalle, Duisburg 2008 Exhibition Deichtorhalle / Haus der Fotografie, Hamburg 2014 Exhibition "Love of My Live" Haus der Fotgrafie, Burghausen