Chief and Artistic Director

Piotr Baron

Born 5.01.1961 in Wrocław, made his debut in 1977. In 1978 he received special mention, and in 1980 he received the second prize at the Jazz on the Odra festival. In 1984 he won the Grand Prix at the San Sebastian “Jazz Aldia” in Spain. He received his Master of Arts degree from the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. During his forty years of musical activity, Piotr Baron has collaborated with the most outstanding artists from Poland, Europe and the USA: Zbigniew Namysłowski, Tomasz Stańko, Henryk Majewski, Henryk Miśkiewicz, Jarosław Śmietana, Wojciech Karolak, Zbigniew Lewandowski, Kazimierz Jonkisz, Krzesimir Dębski, Janusz Muniak, Tomasz Szukalski, Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz, Piotr Wojtasik, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, Bo Stief, Jasper Van‘t Hof, Ray Charles, Art Farmer, James Newton, Al Porcino, Billy Harper, David Murray, Kevin Mahogany, Victor Lewis, Roy McCurdy, John Hicks, Jon Mayer, Eddie Henderson, Gary Smulyan, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Carter Jefferson, Bobby Watson, Kei Akagi, Larry Koonse, Joe LaBarbera, Charlie Shoemake, Mark Soskin, Kevin Hays, Billy Hart, Harvie Swartz, David Friesen, Clarence Seay, Ed Schuller, John Betsch, Wadada Leo Smith, Ronnie Burrage, Greg Bandy, Malcolm Pinson, Skip Hadden, Steve McCraven, Wayne Bartlett, Carlos Johnson, Karen Edwards. In 1998, he was the concertmaster (first alto saxophone) of the European Broadcasting Union Big Band Orchestra in Stockholm. He has taken part in a number of jazz and classical music projects, including Cezary Duchnowski’s Monads series, Jacek Niedziela-Meira’s Scenes from Macondo symphonic poem, and Krzysztof Herdzin’s Looking for Balance suite. He has taken part in the recording of about 100 albums, among others Traveling Birds Quintet (1994) and Return to the Nest (1995) of the same ensemble. Piotr Baron has recorded nine original albums: Take One (1995), Tango (1996), Blue Rain (1997), Bogurodzica (2000), Reference (2004), Salve Regina (2007), Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus (2008), Kaddish (2008) (2011) and Jazz na Hrade (2012). For a quarter of a century now, he has been at the top of the “Jazz Top” survey of the Jazz Forum magazine, the winner of this category in 2015 in the baritone saxophone category. Nominated for the Fryderyk award as musician of the year in 2000, 2004 and 2009, with Bogurodzica and Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus receiving nominations for album of the year.