Leonid Chizhik

Leonid Chizhik (also known as Leonid Arkadievich Chishik) was born 1 January, 1947 in Chişinău, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. He is a jazz pianist and university lecturer who lives in Germany.

Biography

Chizhik, from a Jewish family, studied at the state school of music in Kharkov from 1954. From the age of 15 he started appearing in bands. He studied at the Gnessin Institute, Moscow composition, musicology and piano at Theodor Gutman. He graduated as a concert pianist. In Moscow, he was connected to the jazz scene of the capital in the jazz café "Molodjoschnoje" ( "Youth"), which was at the time the most prominent, and played in the trio of Georgi Garanjan S Melodija Ensemble, His main occupation, however, was in the state Varietéorchester. After playing for the first time as a classical soloist, he was given the opportunity to play Jazz in public in 1974. He played on the debut album from Melodija. Afterwards he started his own trio, and he gained "..popularity [as] a grandmaster of the concert jazz piano".[1] He played on state television with a regular show. Not until the mid-1980s did he perform as a soloist outside the Soviet Union. He has played in Tokyo, Brazil, Paris, Berlin and on the piano summer in Munich.

He moved to Munich in 1991. From circa 1990 onwards, his projects have been in the field of jazz and classical music. He has performed with Gidon Kremer and Leszek Zadlo. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the International Jazz Federation and the General Director of the Moscow Art Center.

From 1992 he was a lecturer at the Richard-Strauss-Konservatorium München. Since 1994, he has been a professor at the Musikhochschule Weimar. Since 2004, he has lectured at the Musikhochschule München.

Reception

P. Frederick Starr describes Chizhik as a "... virtuoso pianist who combines the terrifying speed Art Tatums with the delicate attack Teddy Wilson." Although he plays bebop with phrasing "... the lyrical and romantic element in his play seems everywhere." For Starr he is in the tradition Alexander Tsfasmans; He has also recorded George Gershwins music like this.[2]

Discography

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Kumpf, jazzpages
  2. ↑ Starr, p. 250 f.

External links

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