Leszek Możdżer

He is one of the most outstanding Polish jazz musicians, a world class pianist, a brave explorer, original creator having his own musical language. In 1993 he received an individual distinction at Jazz Juniors, a year later he won 1st place at the International Competition of Jazz Improvisation in Katowice. Since then, he has been winning at all subsequent reader’s polls of Jazz Forum in the category of piano (non-stop from 1994-2007), he was twice a distinguished Musician of the Year (1995-96), in the same role he received the Fryderyk award (1998). In the years 1991-97 he was a member of the band Miłość – the most important jazz and yass band of the 90s, with which he recorded six albums. At the same time (1992-1995) he was the support of Zbyszek Namysłowski’s Quartet Secretly & Confidentially, Zbigniew Namysłowski Quartet & Zakopane Highlanders Band, as well as Eryk Kulma’s band Qunitessence (1993-95). Since the mid-nineties, he has been leading his own bands and recording own albums, among others, Talk To Jesus, Facing The Wind, Chopin-Impresje, Solo In Ukraine 2000-2001, Pub700, Piano, The Time, Between us and the light, Pasodoble, Melisa, Firebird VII. Moreover, he has cooperated with the following performers and music groups: David Gilmour, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Lester Bowie, Adam Pierończyk, Kazik Staszewski, Michał Urbaniak, Tomasz Stańko, Lipali, Phil Manzanera, Anna Maria Jopek, L.U.C, Janusz Radek, David Friesen, Andrzej Olejniczak, Tymon Tymański, Lars Danielsson. He has performed in almost all European countries, also in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile (for an audience of 15 000 people). For years he has been cooperating with composers of film music – Zbigniew Preisner (among others, Requiem dla mojego przyjaciela [Requiem for my friend], 10 łatwych utworów na fortepian [10 easy pieces for the piano]) and Jan Kaczmarek (recordings for the music company 20th Century Fox and Mira Max) – including recording the music to Finding Neverland, which won an Oscar. He wrote the music to the documentary film directed by Sylwester Latkowski Pub 700, of which he himself is the hero, as well as to the film Nienasycenie based on Witkacy directed by Wiktor Grodecki. His theatrical realisations deserve attention: Hair – Love, rock musical, Tango z Lady M., Psychosis 4.48 and Gogol’s Rewizor. He is the author of the music to the show Mandarynki i pomarańcze to Tuwim’s poems, trans-operas Midsummer Night’s Dream according to Shakespeare and the musical Scat directed by Wojtek Kościelniak. At the invitation of Pat Metheny, he played with the international orchestra Jazz Baltica at the festival in Salzau. In September 2004 he performed with Adam Makowicz in concerts in Carnegie Hall in New York. This event was called the climax moment of Polish jazz piano art. He was honoured with many awards, among which ones of particular notice are “Paszport Polityki” [Polityka’s Passport], “Dolnośląski Brylant Roku” [Lower Silesia Diamond of the Year], Cultural Award of the President of the City of Gdansk, the Great Award of the Foundation of Culture, “Złota Batuta za Zasługi dla Kultury Polskiej” [Gold Baton for Merits for Polish Culture] and the award of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of Polish Culture in the world.