POLAND'S TOP JAZZ PIANIST IN A SOLO RECITAL IN CHICAGO
Leszek Mozdzer, Poland's top jazz pianist, made his Chicago area debut with one performance at 7:30 p.m. on April 15 at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
Mozdzer took his audience through the evolution of Polish piano music from Chopin to the present.
Mozdzer played his celebrated variations on themes from the music of the 19th-century Polish composer Frederic Chopin, his own compositions, and pieces by the late jazz pianist Krzysztof Komeda, who scored several of Roman Polanski's early movies and is credited with helping to create a new European jazz aesthetic in the 1950s and '60s.
Mozdzer has produced more than 100 records, and the annual reader poll sponsored by Jazz Forum magazine, a Polish publication, has named him Poland's best jazz pianist every year since 1994.
Mozdzer's virtuoso playing has astonished audiences all over the world, including performances at the most prestigious music festivals, from Spoleto in Charleston, S.C., to the Montreux (Switzerland) and London Jazz Festivals. He also contributed to the Oscar-winning score for the 2004 film Finding Neverland.
Chicago-based singer-composer Grazyna Auguscik has won an enthusiastic local following with appearances at the Green Mill Jazz Club, the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Millennium Park concert program. Her ties to Polish music are strong: She was named "Best Jazz Vocalist" in Jazz Forum magazine's reader poll every year between 2002 and 2006.
Like Mozdzer, Chicago-based Ben Lewis is a classically trained jazz pianist. Lewis has twice traveled the world as a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Dept.
Leszek Mozdzer, Poland's top jazz pianist, made his Chicago area debut with one performance at 7:30 p.m. on April 15 at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
Mozdzer took his audience through the evolution of Polish piano music from Chopin to the present.
Mozdzer played his celebrated variations on themes from the music of the 19th-century Polish composer Frederic Chopin, his own compositions, and pieces by the late jazz pianist Krzysztof Komeda, who scored several of Roman Polanski's early movies and is credited with helping to create a new European jazz aesthetic in the 1950s and '60s.
Mozdzer has produced more than 100 records, and the annual reader poll sponsored by Jazz Forum magazine, a Polish publication, has named him Poland's best jazz pianist every year since 1994.
Mozdzer's virtuoso playing has astonished audiences all over the world, including performances at the most prestigious music festivals, from Spoleto in Charleston, S.C., to the Montreux (Switzerland) and London Jazz Festivals. He also contributed to the Oscar-winning score for the 2004 film Finding Neverland.
Chicago-based singer-composer Grazyna Auguscik has won an enthusiastic local following with appearances at the Green Mill Jazz Club, the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Millennium Park concert program. Her ties to Polish music are strong: She was named "Best Jazz Vocalist" in Jazz Forum magazine's reader poll every year between 2002 and 2006.
Like Mozdzer, Chicago-based Ben Lewis is a classically trained jazz pianist. Lewis has twice traveled the world as a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Dept.
