Nils Ostendorf works in Berlin as a trumpet player and composer. He studied jazz trumpet from 1997 to 2002 at the Folkwanghochschule Essen and the Rotterdam Conservatory. Awarded woth the Folkwang Preis as well as scholarships from the NRW Ministry of Culture and the DAAD, Nils Ostendorf has developed his own musical language on the trumpet, using specifically developed playing techniques inspired by contemporary music, electroacoustic music and nature sounds. He plays internationally in the fields of experimental music and improvisation and has toured throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. He has also participated as a trumpeter in numerous radio, sound art and theatre productions. In 2017 he founded the synth-rock band Polypore with the theatre musicians Daniel Freitag and Max Andrzejewski. Since his student days, Nils Ostendorf has maintained an interest in dance and theatre. After initial experiences with choreographers Felix Bürkle and Samir Akika as trumpeter and composer, he created his first theatre music for French director Mikaël Serre in 2006. In 2007, he worked as a theatre composer for the first time with Thomas Ostermeier, with whom he has enjoyed a long and successful collaboration. He has also composed theater music for Yael Ronen, Falk Richter and Maris von Mayenburg at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and at the Residenztheater in Munich.
For 2019, Nils Ostendorf is granted one of the two domestic scholarships for the composition and design of an evening from the series AUS DEM HINTERHALT at Deutsche Oper Berlin.