Polish "ambassador of jazz", Artur Dutkiewicz, gave a solo concert in Tauranga.

On Sunday, 10 April 2016, “Polish ambassador of jazz”, Artur Dutkiewicz, performed at Tauranga Art Gallery. After a successful performance at the Wellington Jazz Festival and performances around Australia in June 2015 with his Trio, Dutkiewicz was back in the southern hemisphere. His New Zealand series of solo concerts and recitals included a performance at the Tauranga Art Gallery. It drew a small but discerning audience of more than 50 people, among them Andrea Meredith, educator, pianist and director of Tauranga Primary Schools’ Festival, and Carol Storey, composer, singer, guitarist and HOD Arts/Music Specialist at Tauranga Intermediate School.

Dutkiewicz presented contemporary jazz from his solo album Mazurkas, which was influenced by Chopin, Szymanowski and Bartok. In this programme classical music, Polish folk music and trance jazz improvisations were combined as one original whole. This is a pioneering project in contemporary solo piano music.
  
A TV interview (in Polish) with Dutkiewicz about his 2016 solo tour of New Zealand, Australia and Brazil can be viewed on YouTube by clicking here.
A comprehensive interview with him about his approach to music, also in Polish, can be read in 12/2012  Jazz Forum.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of public theatre in Poland, The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Wellington is showing, for the first time in New Zealand, a selection of Polish theatre posters. Some of these posters was displayed at the gallery during the concert.

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