Ilg, Dieter (Josef), bassist; b. Offenburg, Germany, 30 September 1961. His father is Werner Ilg, born in Offenburg, Germany, September 22, 1934. His mother is Rita Ilg (born Kloepper), born in Karlsruhe, Germany, February 2, 1936. Both play violin as amateurs in the field of classical music. His father also plays viola.

At the age of six, Dieter started with violin playing this instrument for about 6 years then 1 year of viola. At 13, he started to pick the instrument that he really wanted to play: acoustic bass. He had four years of classical bass lessons with Albrecht Kohlund at Musikschule D-Offenburg (1974-78), a few lessons in 1975 with local jazz bassist Wilfried Kirner, and from 1979-81 private lessons with Norbert Brenner (solobassist of SWR-sinfony-orchestra in D-Baden-Baden). From 1979 till 84, he spent time visiting jazz workshops at Akademie Remscheid in D-Remscheid (lessons with Austrian bassist Adelhard Roidinger), Studienzentrum fur zeitgenoessische Musik in D-Burghausen (lessons with bassist Reinhard Gloeder) and international jazz workshops in D-Rottenburg a.N. and D-Tuebingen (lessons with Ron Mc Clure). In 1984, he took lessons with Eddie Gomez in NYC. From October 1981-February 1986, he studied classical bass at Musikhochschule Freiburg in D-Freiburg, finishing with summa cum laude. His teacher there was Wolfgang Stert. From 1986-87 he received a Fulbright stipendium for traveling and an Annette Kade Fellowship for studies at Manhattan School of Music.

Mentors in jazz have been Thomas Lampert (cl, sax), Joe Viera (sax) who discovered Ilg in 1979, Adelhard Roidinger (bass), Dave Liebman, and Randy Brecker. Since performing with these artists, he has toured internationally for many years with Charlie Mariano and with Albert Mangelsdorff.
Since 1981 he has taught the double-bass and ensemble leading in jazz education at the Center for Contemporary Music, Burghausen; Jazz School, Bern; Academy of Arts, Berlin; Sibelius Academy Helsinki; Conservatories of Mannheim, Hannover, Kln, Freiburg, Bremen, Wellington / Auckland (New Zealand). From 1991-95, he was an assistant professor at Jazz & Rockschool Freiburg. From 1995-97 and in 2001, he was an assistant professor at Freiburg Conservatory for jazz double-bass.