Ukrainian jazz pianist, virtuoso improviser and multi-instrumentalist, composer and teacher, founder and artistic director of the international jazz festival "Jazz Carnival in Odesa", president of the "High Music Club", Honored Artist of Ukraine.
He has played works ranging from classical to experimental and avant-garde jazz, and was awarded the Paul McCartney Special Prize at the Yesterday International Competition in Estonia. Due to his extraordinary musical talent and unsurpassed technique, Kuznetsov's name is widely known both in Ukraine and abroad.
Biography.
He was born on July 11, 1953 in Odesa. In 1978, he graduated from the Odesa Conservatory with a degree in piano, where he taught music theory and composition since 1979.
In 1980, he became one of the founders of the pop and jazz department of the Dankevych Odesa Music School. In the same year, together with O. Kucherovskyi and S. Zak, he founded the first professional jazz trio of the Odesa Philharmonic. In 1997, Yuriy Kuznetsov created and headed the "High Music Club", which organized concerts of world jazz stars - Eric Marienthal, Jeff Lorber, William Kennedy, Jimmy Haslip, Chuck Loeb, Mark Eigen and others.
Since 2000 he has been an art director and active participant of the International Jazz Festival "Jazz Carnival in Odesa".
Creative work
Yuriy Kuznetsov is the author of music for theatrical performances Venus and Mozart and Salieri, films The Scent of Autumn, The Sinner, Taxi Blues (together with Vladimir Chekasin, Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival), Impression (Grand Prix at the Post-Montreux International Film Festival), etc.
Since 2010, he has been actively involved in dubbing world masterpieces of silent cinema: "Arsenal" (directed by Oleksandr Dovzhenko, 1929, performed at the international festivals "Silent Nights 2010, Gogolfest 2010, Jazz Koktebel 2010), "Night Cab Driver" (directed by Georgy Tasin, 1928, performed at the international festival "Book Arsenal 2011"), "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (directed by Karl Theodor Dreyer, 1928, performed at the festival "Silent Nights 2011").
