Piotr Damasiewicz

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Piotr Damasiewicz also known as Damaś (born April 11, 1980, in Wroclaw) is a Polish composer, trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, traveller and curator of international music platforms. In addition to the trumpet, he also studied double bass, piano and classical singing - including Gregorian chant - choral and chamber conducting, arrangement and composition. In his work, he uses the language of jazz, 20th-century classical music, ethnic music, modern music, along with European improvised music and experiment.

Damasiewicz has represented Poland on four international music platforms: Take Five Europe, Jazz Plays Europe Laboratory, Art Meetings and Melting Pot Laboratory (Jazztopad). In the last two, as a leader, composer and instrumentalist, he developed the idea of open improvisation in contact with other fields of art. Currently, he is taking a doctor’s degree at the Instrumental Department of Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.

For over a decade, Damasiewicz has been in a constant journey, musical, among others. One could say he is characterized by being in perpetual motion.

He visits various places, spaces and cultures. There - he creates by generating various sound connections.

One of the most important activities that he focuses on, as he describes it, is simultaneously travelling deep into himself and into the sound. In 2019, as a pilgrim-musician, he travelled 4,186 km on foot from the Ukrainian border to Santiago de Compostela. During the six-month journey, he made over 100 recordings of his solo impressions in various sacred spaces, where he examined their acoustic characteristics. A year earlier, together with his partner Agnieszka Kabath, he lived and recorded his improvisations in an old chapel in Vin Sur Caramy in Provence, where he immersed himself in prayer and meditation with sound, recording several dozen hours of music. Curious to learn, during his journey he interacts with interesting people, sometimes outstanding musical individuals. These informal, spontaneous meetings generate unique amalgamations and understanding at a deep level. One of the most important in his life is the visit to the double bass player Barry Phillips, with whom he spent time talking and making music together. Similar events were visits to the home of Antoin Rooney in New York, or the home of the drummer Ngom Babu Herim in Zanzibar. Face-to-face meetings with the masters are key moments in the development of his musical personality.

Travelling all over the world, he reacts to situations and places with which he interacts with sound, often experimenting with acoustics, objects and instruments. He has made musical trips to Africa, Asia, North America and a large part of Europe, including residences significant for the artist in the Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Serbia, Switzerland and Portugal, where he had the opportunity to deeply confront the local creative environments, co-creating or participating in various projects and music meetings.

Band activities and composing

The work and play of Damasiewicz can be heard in various authorial editions. From the multiplayer ensemble „Power Of The Horns,” where he writes compositions for 8 to 18 musicians, through chamber quintets, quartets, trios, such as „Mnemotaksja,” „Into the Roots,” „Viennese Connections” or „ImproGraphic,” to orchestral works such as „Hadrons” (a symphonic quintet plus improvisers), or „Suite 29” (an orchestra of over a dozen improvisers), and ending with solo compositions (the piece "LS Dam" for cello solo) or solo improvisations on trumpet.

His music resonates also in projects where he is a sideman, co-leader or co-author: „VeNN Circles,” „Red Trio Quinet,” „Hangar Music” as well as „Elements” and „Sesto Elemento” in cooperation with Maciej Garbowski.

Compositional works

The most significant orchestral works by the artist include: "Hadrons" for string quintet and jazz band commissioned by the Jazztopad festival, "Suite 29" written for the World Jazz Days for Polish Radio Program II, "Composition for 27 improvisers" as part of the final Melting Pot (Jazztopad) platform in Wrocław and the composition "Some Kind Of Greek Story" based on Delphic sentences, commissioned by Casa de Musica in Porto. In addition to orchestral, chamber and solo works, he also creates theatre and film music ("The Scent of Lviv" by Grzegorz Korczak).

He is a co-composer of the European jazz anthem for the 25th anniversary of the European Jazz Network. As a composer and arranger, he also cooperates with the educational section of the National Forum of Music.

Educational activities

He worked at the Music Academy in Zanzibar, where he was the artistic director. In the years 2006-2007 he conducted a brass band at the Ryszard Bukowski State Secondary Music School  in Wrocław, as well as lectures and courses on improvisation and creation of a musical work, incl. at the Summer Music Academy in Łódź, and also as a guest at the Karol Lipiński Music Academy in Wrocław. In addition, as a teacher, arranger and conductor, he co-created the orchestral project "Wszystko Gra" with Władysław Kosendiak, in cooperation with the Lower Silesian Music Society.

He studied at the academies of music in Wrocław (Akademia Muzyczna im. Karola Lipińskiego we Wrocławiu), Bydgoszcz (Akademia Muzyczna im. Feliksa Nowowiejskiego w Bydgoszczy) and Katowice (Akademia Muzyczna w Katowicach) He founded the ‘Music According To Art Association’ (MATA) which promotes artists looking for alternative solutions in music and art. In his musical work, he references the languages of modal jazz, free jazz, European classical music, new European improvised music, sound art and electroacoustic improvisation.

At present

Currently, under the name of Piotr Damasiewicz Viennese Connections, he collaborates with musicians associated with the Austrian jazz scene: Thomas Stempkowski, Krzysztof Kasprzyk and Aleksander Yannilos, he also creates constellations with musicians from the Berlin music scene, such as Emilio Gordoa ("Hangar Music") and Samuel Hall ("Power Of The Horns"), as well as a trio with Paweł Szpura and Zbigniew Kozera referring to the musicians' ethnic journeys ("Into the Roots"). He also collaborates with the best European groups, Spinifex and Red Trio, including a duet with the pianist Rodrigo Pihneiro.

Collabs so far:

Artists with whom Piotr Damasiewicz has performed: David Murray, Jason Moran, James Carter, Tomasz Stanko, Lotte Anker, Magda Mayas, Phil Minton, Jeb Bishop, Andrzej Bauer, Dave Rempis, Michael Zerang, Paul Nilsen Lowe, Skalpel, Jon Falt, Satoko Fuji, Morihide Sawada, Hans Koch, Joker Nies, Kazuhisa Uhichashi, Rodrigo Amado, Zdzisław Piernik, Per Zanussi, Marcin Masecki, Cezary Duchnowski, Josh Sinton, Betina Wenzel, Wolfgang Reisinger, Eduardo Maraffa, Mathias Muche. He also collaborated with Maciej Garbowski and the Aukso chamber orchestra. He constantly collaborates with Maciej Obara and Dominik Wania.

Important places and festivals:

London Jazz Festival, North See Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz, Lincoln Center Dizzy's Club, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Paris Banlieues Bleues Jazz Festival, Jazz Jamboree, Jazztopad, Menchester Jazz Festival, Krakow Jazz Autumn, Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, Ad Libitum, Musica Polonica Nova, Music Biennale Zagreb, Solidarity Of Art, Isai Festival Chennai, Ars Musica, Java Jazz Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb.

Currently he operates within his own music platform and publishing house under the name L.A.S. listening and sounding, created for his own needs of publishing as well as concert and workshop. The philosophy on which the main message of the publishing house is based is contained in 12 words put together in six sentences which make up the acronym L.A.S.

            Listening and Sounding/

            Looking and Seeing/

            Learning and Surviving/

    Living and Synchronizing/

    Liberty and Synergy/

            Love and Stream

These are conventional steps in the context of a process of building and expanding consciousness, the starting point of which is "listening" including the development of auditory perception.

This release, despite the fact that it has only been in existence for a short time, has already been highly acclaimed in the music industry. Damasiewicz's albums, where he implements his own projects under the name of L.A.S. listening and sounding, are among the top jazz albums of 2021/2022.

His current leading ensembles are Piotr Damasiewicz Viennese Connection with musicians associated with the Austrian jazz scene: These are: Thomas Stempkowski, Krzysztof Kasprzyk and Alexander Yannilos, the legendary group comprising leading musicians of the Polish jazz scene Piotr Damasiewicz & Power of The Horns, the trio referring to ethnic journeys Piotr Damasiewicz "Into The Roots" with Paweł Szpura and Zbigniew Kozera, the duo Hangar Musics with Emilio Gordoa associated with the Berlin improvised scene, and the Charles Mingus Group.  Important projects also include Damasiewicz's solo work, in which he engages in a dialogue with nature, folk music and architecture, including a project relating to Wroclaw bridges, which he realized as part of an artistic scholarship from the Mayor of Wroclaw. He cooperates with two groups/music platforms: the Lublin-based band Tatvamasi and the Warsaw-based group KOLD, with whose leader Kuba Wójcik he forms a duet.

Bands and projects^[1][]

As leader[]

• Piotr Damasiewicz Into The Roots
• Power Of The Horns
• Hadrons
• ImproGraphic
• Mnemotaksja
• Piotr Damasiewicz Quintet
• Art Escape Quintet

As co-author with Gerard Lebik[]

• VeNN Circles,
• Este Mutual Group,
• Red Trio Quintet (Red Trio/Damasiewicz/Lebik)

As multicultural curator[]

• Festival Art Meeting in Lviv,
• Art platform Melting Pot in Wrocław (Jazztopad).

Cooperation with different artistic platforms and projects[]

• Take Five European Project,
• Polish German coproduction of Avant Art Festival,
• Gerngesehen and Mex,
• JazzPlayesEurope,
• Composer in the celebration of 25 anniversary of the European Jazz Network,
• International improvised music summit Alpenglow III/Styria Meets Wrocław,
• Tilde-Polish Experimental Music tour in Scandinavia,
• Jazztopad-USA and Canada tour

Prizes[]

• Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
• Winner of the Fryderyk 2013 phonographic award.
• Winner of the Wareto Award granted by Gazeta Wyborcza.
• Winner of the Wrocław Music Award.
• Laureate of the Krzysztof Komeda composer competition.
• Artistic scholarship of the Mayor of Wrocław.
• Winner of the Jazz2020 plebiscite in the Album of the Year category according to readers and listeners of Jazzpress and Radiojazz.
• Winner of the Jazz2020 plebiscite in the Artist of the Year category according to the readers and listeners of Jazzpress and Radiojazz
• Trumpeter of the year in the "Jazz Forum" Jazz Top 2020 in the critics' poll.
• Trumpeter of the year in Jazz Top "Jazz Forum" 2021 in the readers' poll.
• "Watra" in the ranking of top 10 Polish jazz albums 2021 according to Polska Płyta / Polska Muzyka.
• "Watra" ranked 1st in the poll for the Best Polish Jazz Album 2021 organized by Ether Jazz.
• "Watra" took 3rd place in the JazzPRESS 2021 editorial ranking.
• Artist of the Year 2021 in the ranking of the readers of JazzPRESS and listeners of RadioJAZZ.FM in the category of Polish jazz musician.

Selected discography[]

As leader[]

As co -founder[]

As a sideman[]

Other[]

Damasiewicz has been artistic director of (2018)

He also composes soundtracks for movies and theatrical performances. One of the most important work is the movie soundtrack “The smell of Lviv”.

References[]