This year’s finals will feature six bands who will take to the stage at Impart Centrum.
This year’s festival will begin with the final auditions for the 2023 Jazz Individuality Contest, which will take place on 26 April at Impart Centrum. Young musicians will compete for the Grand Prix awarded by a jury consisting of: Dariusz Oleszkiewicz, Peter Erskine, Piotr Wojtasik, Kuba Stankiewicz. The winner will receive, among other awards, PLN 25 000 funded by the Mayor of Wrocław and a Rybotrąbka statuette.
This year, six bands qualified for the final: Jopek / Klemensiewicz, J. Tronix, Kasia S.P. Project, Know Material, Product May Contain and Sonar. Jopek / Klemensiewicz is a duo of young artists who create original content based on improvised music combined with impressionistic, classical and Polish folk music. Winners of the Jazz Juniors International Competition for Young Jazz Ensembles (2022). The members of the electro-jazz trio – J. Tronix, met while studying at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. They were brought together by a common passion and fascination for jazz improvisation, which they embed in contemporary electronic sounds. Kasia S.P. Project is a quintet founded by young bassist – Kasia Schmidt-Przeździecka. The project was formed in December 2022 with the aim of preparing the leader’s original music, who, together with her band, creates a slightly old-school, electric-acoustic blend of sounds.
The band – Know Material takes its listeners on journeys through a whole range of feelings. The songs are a tale of contrasts between helplessness and melancholy versus joy, strength and constant self-discovery. They contain a reflection of the thoughts that most young people face today. Improvised music is their primary means of expression. Product May Contain is a trio of young musicians whose main aim is to create spaces – tight and vast. In their work, influences from jazz, folk, ambient and chamber music can be found – operating in symbiosis with the sound of vibraphone, double bass and ethnic percussion instruments. Sonar started playing together in 2019, while attending the Mieczyslaw Karłowicz Music School in Poznan together. Since then, they have played many concerts and won several competitions. Currently, some of them are studying at the Odense Musikkonservatorium in Denmark and some at the Music Academy in Łódź, but despite the distance, they come together to play music and develop their style.
The Grand Prix winner and other prize-winners will be announced on 26 April at the award ceremony of the Jazz Individuality Contest.
Tickets for the competition and individual concerts of the 59th edition of the Jazz on the Oder River festival are available at www.jazznadodra.pl and www.strefakultury.pl.
