Wollny took piano and violin lessons at the Musikschule Schweinfurt and at the Hermann Zilcher Conservatory in Würzburg until 1997, successfully competing in the Jugend musiziert. He then studied at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with. He took the artistic diploma with distinction in 2002, and the master classes diploma in 2004. He also studied with John Taylor and Walter Norris. Wollny was from 1998 to 2002 a member of the touring. He also played in a quartet led by. Wollny's debut album was recorded with Wolfgang Kriener and Joachim Leyh. Wollny has played with Heinz Sauer from 2001 both as a duo and in a quartet. He was also a member of the trio, with bassist Eva Kruse and percussionist. He recorded CDs as a member of the group Young Friends, with Winter, with , and with Nils Landgren, among others. He was a regular pianist at the Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Nationaltheater Mannheim from 1999. In 2005 Wollny signed a contract with the label ACT Music + Vision on which he released several albums with his trio and in collaboration with other artists, such as Sauer and Nils Landgren. In 2007 he released his first solo albumHexentanz. In 2014 his trio, now with bassist Tim Lefebvre, recorded the albumWeltentraum, which made the pop charts. A review in The Guardian noted "They are one of the world's great jazz-driven piano trios, and Nachtfahrten takes nothing away from this assessment." In 2017, he was an artist in residence of the Rheingau Musik Festival, interviewed in a Rendezvous, and playing three concerts, improvising with Marius Neset in the first, with vocalist Andreas Schaerer, Émile Parisien and Vincent Peirani in the second, and finally with his trio and the Norwegian Wind Ensemble. Since 2014 Wollny has lived with his family in Leipzig, where he is a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig.
Awards
Wollny has been awarded several scholarships and prizes, including the cultural prize of Schweinfurt in 2003, and in 2005 both the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis. He received the Choc de l'annee 2006 from the French magazine Jazzman, the Jazzpreis of the Nürnberger Nachrichten in 2007, and in 2008 the, again with Heinz Sauer. He was awarded the ECHO Jazz in the category Instrumentalist/in des Jahres national - Piano/Keyboards in 2010 when the prize was awarded for the first time. The trio received Ronnie Scott's Jazz Award as Most Promising International Newcomer of the Year in London in May 2007. In 2011, they received the , and the ECHO Jazz in the category Ensemble des Jahres national. In 2013, Wollny received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for his album Don't Explain – Live in Concert with Heinz Sauer, and the. The trio received the ECHO Jazz as ensemble of the year. Wollny and Sauer were awarded the in 2013. In 2015 and 2016 he was again awarded the ECHO Jazz.
