Biography

Włodek Pawlik – born 1958. Pianist and composer. Graduate of the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw where he completed his classical piano training under the direction of Barbara Hesse-Bukowska in 1984. He also studied jazz composition, theory and arrangement at Hochschule für Music in Hamburg (Germany) graduating in 1990. Laureate of prizes in many national and international music competitions, including first place in the instrumentalists category at the International Jazz Competition in Dunkirk (France, 1984) and second place at the International Composers' Competition in Monaco (1988).

He has cut 21 records under his own name to date and performed at the most notable and prestigious jazz festivals, including The North Sea Jazz Festival in Hague (1998), European Union Jazz Festival in Athens (2006), as well as classical music festivals, such as Wratislavia Cantans in Wrocław (with his Misterium Stabat Mater, 2003). His artistic activities along with his phonographic output have gained him recognition among the mass media („The Age” daily hailed his tour of Australia as one of the musical events of the year 2002), and professional journals (the opinion-forming magazine „Down Beat” denoted his album „Turtles” with Randy Brecker as excellent).

 

Active composer of symphonic music (including piano concerto), vocal-instrumental forms (opera „Via Sancta” premiered in 2007 at the Polish National Opera House in Warsaw, music for William Shakespeare's sonnets), ballet („Flow”), theatrical and movie soundtracks (including „Crows”, „Nightwatching”, „Time To Die”, „Rewers”, „Mistyfication”). Voted Musician of the Year in 1988 (Akwarium Jazz Club), 1996 and 2001 („Jazzi Magazine”). He has won numerous prizes for his works, including „Fryderyk 2005” for Misterium Stabat Mater, Polish National Television Culture Channel Award for this trio-album „Anhelli” for the best project in jazz/rock category of the year 2006. He was awarded at the prestigious Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for the best movie soundtrack of „Rewers”. He also received the main prize of the Polish film industry „Orły 2010” (Eagles) for the same soundtrack.

In 2008 he recorded an album „Tykocin Jazz Suite” with the trumpeter Randy Brecker that was released in Poland by Polish Radio and in the USA by Summit Records. The album reached a high position in the annual jazz critic's rankings in Poland and USA, including Best in Jazz, Philadelphia Inquirer, and won a nomination for „Fryderyk 2009” for the best jazz album in Poland along with the nomination for the jazz musician of the year for Włodek Pawlik.

„Pawlik is a Vladimir Horowitz of jazz. He is a phenomenon in his own right. Everybody should listen to him play.”

Eric van't Groenewout's Who is Who, „North Sea Jazz Magazine”, 1998

 

(...)the players' considerable facility and complicated turns of thought are so readily translated into high-quality modern jazz."

From the review of "Turtles" album by Frank John Hadley, „Down Beat”, 1997

 

„The Jazz Hour starring Włodek Pawlik Trio (…) technical mastery, superb improvising skills.”

Klaus Berger, „Hamburger Abendblatt”

 

„Nostalgic Journey/Tykocin Jazz Suite is a magnificent CD that presents both a new side to Randy Brecker and a fine introduction to Włodek Pawlik.”

Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

 

„....well-acted and unpredictable story (…), all of it tied together with a terrific jazz-inflected score.”

„Rewers” - film review by Sheri Linden, „Hollywood Reporter”