Erasmus-Masterclass Saxophon mit Pawel Gusnar

Im Rahmen des Vienna International Saxfest

Pause von 12 bis 14 Uhr

Pawel Gusnar
A versatile artist, open to various styles an forms of expression. He belongs to a select group of saxophonists who successfully combine classical music with jazz and popular music.
He was born in Sosnowiec. He studied at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. In 1992 and 1993 respectively, he became laureate of the First International Wind Instruments Competition (which was held in Dabrowa Gornicza), and the Chamber Music Competition (which was held in Wroclaw). He was also a finalist of the Yamaha Foundation Scholarship Competition in 2000. He has taken part in numerous festivals. He is a member of the Adam Sztaba Orchestra, Kukla Band directed by Zygmunt Kukla and the Tomasz Szymu? Orchestra.
He has been invited to perform with numerous symphony orchestras including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has also developed a career as a soloist, appearing with Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Concerto Avenna, Capella Bydgostiensis, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Sinfonia Baltica, orchestra of the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester), Ochestra Vallentiana (France), Lviv Chamber Orchestra, and almost all the philharmonic orchestras in Poland performing pieces by Penderecki, Glazunov, Debussy, Ibert, Milhaud, Gershwin, Herdzin, ?ukaszewski, Knittel, Villa Lobos, Kowalski, Przybylski, Piazzolla and Casken.
He has given first performances of works by many contemporary Polish composers, many of which have been dedicated to him (Mi?osz Bembinow, Cezary Duchnowski, Andrzej Dutkiewicz, Anna Maria Huszcza, Andrzej Kara?ow, Benedykt Konowalski, Marcin ?ukaszewski, Pawel ?ukaszewski, Piotr Moss, Krzysztof Penderecki, Zbigniew Penherski, Weronika Ratusi?ska, El?bieta Sikora, Marian Sawa, Krzysztof Herdzin, Ryszard Borowski and many others).
As a session musician, he has taken part in the recording of film soundtracks, incidental music and CDs for such labels as BMG, ARMSmusic, Pomaton EMI, DUX and Polish Radio.
In 2007 Musica Sacra published his first solo CD, entitled ‘New Polish Music for saxophone and organ’ (nomination to the Fryderyk 2008 award).  Another  solo albums are – Komeda Inspiration, Saxophone Impressions, Jazz Sonatas, Saxophone Varie. He has been nominated for the Fryderyk Awards five times. This year his latest CD with pieces by Polish composers – Saxophone Varie, new faces of Polish Saxophone Music, won the award of the polish music industry “Fryderyk” 2014 in the Chamber Music Category.  In more recent years, he has been invited to judge a number of highly regarded Saxophone competitions. He is invited also as a lecturer to the international courses of music interpretation. Since 2003 he has been employed as a Professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music  in Warsaw and at the Lodz Academy of Music. Since October 2011 he has been Deputy Dean of the Instrumental Department at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
Pawel Gusnar is artist of YAMAHA and Rico D’Addario & Company. He plays YAMAHA YAS-875ES alto and YSS-875EXGP soprano saxophone.