Some of the best artists from Voicingers - the famous Polish vocal festival, workshop and contest - will be performing at Opus Jazz Club at our Polska Jazz - Voicingers Nights minifestival, May 25-26, 2018.

Voicingers Festival, taking place yearly in Żory, Upper Silesia, Poland, lead by outstanding Polish singer Grzegorz Karnas, was created to provide access and support to the most original and forthcoming music projects where improvisation is the axis and the key to ever blossoming freshness in music making. Besides working for the benefit of young professionals and those whose career has already been established, Voicingers Festival helps those for whom career in personal approach to singing is a path through life. Therefore the festival, besides concerts of renowned international artists, organizes also the International Jazz Contest for Singing Musicians, shapes young musicians through individual and group activities during the Voicingers Workshops, and provides a lot of further activities both for artists and the public.

In recent years, the co-operation between the Voicingers Festival, Hevhetia Records and Opus Jazz Club of Budapest Music Center has been developing to create a strong partnership, both in forms of participating in the Festival's jury as well as inviting winners of the Festival to the Opus, like Martyna Kwolek & Early Birds to Opus' annual Hevhetia Festival in last August.

The present two-day event, taking place on the 25th and 26th of May, 2018 is another step forward in this process.

May 25th, 8pm
Winners of the 2017 Voicingers contest
20:00 - 20:50 PRZEMEK KLECZKOWSKI (PL)
21:00 - 21:50 NASTJA VOLOKITINA (UA)

Przemek Kleczkowski, born in Hrubieszów, in the farthest east of Poland, graduated from the Academy of Music at the Department of Composition of Education and Jazz Studies in Katowice. He has performed at jazz festivals in Poland and abroad. Currently working on his debut album, which he has already invited well known young musicians such as Szymon Mika, Franciszek Raczkowski and Patryk Dobosz. The music he presents is comprised primarily of his own compositions. Their strength, according to the artist himself, is simplicity combined with the elements of improvisation.

Nastja Volokitina, born in Odessa, Ukraine. is a graduate from Vladimir College of Music specialising in jazz vocals, currently studying at Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, Germany. She has performed her compositions to great acclaim with both chamber music ensembles and large classical orchestras throughout Europe and Russia. A laureate of the prestigious Jazz Voice Competition in Montreux, Switzerland and the Riga Jazz Stage, Latvia. She performed at various international jazz festivals.

May 26th, 8pm
Alina Rostotskaya Quartet (RU/PL/H)

Alina’s music can be described as acoustic fusion of jazz, Russian folk, and classical music. Rostotskaya won, or was among the finalists, at several international jazz competitions: Moscow Jazz Vocalists Competition (Grand Prix), Voicingers (Poland, 2nd prize), Riga Jazz Stage (Latvia, 3rd prize and Special prize), Nomme Jazz (Estonia, Special prize), Baku Jazz Competition (Azerbaijan, Grand Prix). In 2013, Alina was part of unique reality TV competition, Big Jazz (Russia Culture Channel), where she stayed until the very last round of the seven-steps competition.

She experiments with styles, sings both in Russian and English, and experiments with different techniques of instrumental singing (without words,) ranging from jazzy scat to modern classical vocalise. In April 2018 Alina Rostotskaya releases Flow, her debut album: seven pieces in different styles and moods, from Russian and Sephardic folk tunes, to Alina’s original songs in Russian, and pieces with instrumental singing. Recorded at the Mosfilm studio in Moscow, the album was mixed and mastered by the legend of European jazz sound engineer, Jan Erik Kongshaug, at Rainbow Studio in Oslo.

The young Polish guitarist Jakub Mizeracki graduated with master degree from Music Academy in Katowice in 2017. He is a prizewinner of Grand Prix 52 Jazz Nad Odrą with the band Skicki-Skiuk. He has performed with many great artists including Leszek Możdżer, Adam Kowalewski, Piotr Schmidt, Jacek Kochan, Aga Zaryan, Adam Jarzmik. His compatriot, double bass player Mariusz Praśniewski, graduated at the Danish National Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark. During his scholarship at the Academy of Music and Drama, Göteborg, Sweden he studied under Anders Jormin. Currently he is a member of Danish and Polish formations such as the Jens Fisker Trio, the Łukasz Borowicki Quartet or the Grzegorz Karnas Formula. Hungarian percussionist András Dés has developed a unique percussion style over the past years. As a member of numerous successful jazz outfits he has been touring all around the world and has played at many important venues such as Carnegie Hall, Covent Garden, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Damascus Opera House, the Jerusalem Theatre, the Cairo Jazz Festival or the Shanghai World Expo. He has also composed several film and theatre scores. Throughout his career, Dés has been crossing borders between genres. As a jazz musician he has worked with performers such as Miklós Lukács, Elemér Balázs, Zsolt Kaltenecker, Palle Mikkelborg, Frank London, Charlie Mariano, Theodossii Spassov, Ferenc Snétberger, Jack DeJohnette, Gerard Presencer, Eivind Aarset, Mihály Borbély, Eric Truffaz and Chris Potter. His openness to diverse forms of art is not limited to music.