On March 4, Gdynia’s Ucho club staged the first concert of the ”Jazzmania with Nordea” series, which sets to promote jazz music.  

Jazzmania with Nordea is a series of 10 concerts to be given in the largest cities of Poland. Apart from the Tri-city, the gigs will be staged in Bydgoszcz, Poznań, Łódź, Białystok, Szczecin, Warsaw, Kraków, Katowice and Wrocław. The Warsaw concert is scheduled for March 10 in the Agnieszka Osiecka Studio of Polish Radio Channel 3, whereas the Szczecin concert will take place on August 4 on board of the ”Kruzenshtern” during The Tall Ship Races. Apart from concerts, ”Jazzmania with Nordea” includes master classes at Music Academies and numerous contest as well as a special publication. A website has been created for the project (www.jazzmaniaznordea.pl) in addition to a Facebook profile (www.facebook.com/JazzmaniaZNordea).

Sylwester Ostrowski is a saxophone player and a creative force behind countless cultural events. He majored in Jazz at the Music Academy in Katowice, and has chaired the Jazz Orchestra Association (Stowarzyszenie Orkiestra Jazzowa) in Szczecin for the last 10 years. He has a band comprising US jazzmen: pianist Reggie Moor and drummer Newman T. Baker.

Piotr Wojtasik – a trumpeter, composer and the frontman of a few jazz bands, has received several ”Frederick” and ”Jazz Oscar” awards. He has been recording and playing concerts with the world’s greatest jazz starts for more than ten years. All in all, he has made over 100 albums, including 7 he wrote and recorded himself.   Nordea Bank has actively promoted jazz for 20 years now. The Academy of Arts and the Jazz Contest in Szczecin are two big projects successfully run under Nordea’s banner. Last year a special publication was released, which summarised the cooperation between Nordea Bank Polska and  Jazz Orchestra Association.

www.nordea.pl