Pianist Vadim Neselovskyi . ROOTS AND RIBS FESTIVAL of music and food. at OSPAC

NY-based pianist/composer Vadim Neselovskyi

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Critics

have praised NY-based pianist/composer Vadim Neselovskyi for

“extraordinary playing”(Los Angeles Times), “exceptional composition

skills” (musicweb-international.com) and“feathery touch” (New York

Times). 

While mostly known as one of the key members of multiple

GRAMMY® winner Gary Burton’s Quintet, and as a featured pianist and

composer on Burton’s Concord Records release “Next Generation,” Vadim is

rapidly gaining reputation as a band leader, creating a “thrilling

blend of classical and jazz” (jazzreview.com)

Vadim grew up in

Odessa, Ukraine, where he was the youngest student to be accepted into

the famous Odessa Conservatory, and then moved to Dortmund, Germany when

he was 17 years old. Shortly after arriving in Germany, he established

himself on the local jazz scene, taking part in the Dusseldorf Jazz

Rally and Leipzig Jazz Days. After a few years he moved to the USA to

further his studies at Berklee College of Music, where he was discovered

by Gary Burton.

Before graduating from Berklee Vadim was asked to

play and compose for a Berklee’s promotional recording produced by Pat

Metheny. Four weeks after graduation he was playing with Gary Burton at

the Blue Note in New York. Since June 2004 Vadim has been consistently

touring the US, Europe and Japan in Gary Burton’s quintet.

Vadim is developing a name for himself as a solo artist. His new CD, Music for September, produced by Fred Hersch received the following praise from Jazzpodium,

“Although

this reviewer is decidedly opposed to promotional labels like: ‘The

Chopin of the jazz piano’ (as the Neue Musik Zeitung entitled him), this

comparison however is not too far–fetched indeed. Growing from a

stalwart classical foundation, Neselovskyi’s immense technique, powerful

but crystal–clear touch and sparkling improvisations betray influences

from Bach to John Lewis and Lenny Tristano. In short, Vadim serves as a

living counter–example for musical pigeonholing. Neselovskyi

deliberately places himself within the tradition of great solo piano,

reimagining and enriching it with accomplishments of jazz and pop…His

music is everything: composition, adaptation, interpretation. And

sometimes it’s almost hard to distinguish where a standard is being

played, where he’s making an allusion and where it’s actually a

composition by Neselovskyi himself, who considers himself more a

composer than a pianist.”

His CD “Spring Song”, that features two charismatic singers Vera Westera (NL) and Amanda Baisinger (US), received enthusiastic reviews.