It has brought together a group of leading Polish musicians, including Anna Maria Jopek, Wojciech Staroniewicz, Maciej Sikała, Dominik Bukowski, Michał Barański, and Sebastian Frankiewicz, as well as Arnan Palty from Israel.
It is the fifth edition of the Victor Young Jazz Festival in Mława, the birthplace of Young’s Polish ancestors. The composer himself was born in Chicago in 1899, but was sent to Poland at the age of 10 to stay with his grandfather and study at the Warsaw Conservatory. His teachers included composer Roman Statkowski and violinist Stanisław Barcewicz.
While in his late teens, Young was a violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic. During his time in Poland he visited Mława.
He returned to the United States in 1920 and soon turned to popular music, moving to Hollywood in the mid-1930s. He composed soundtracks for some 300 films, winning 22 Academy Award nominations. He received his only Oscar posthumously, in 1957, for Around the World in Eighty Days, less than a year after his death, aged 56.
The event is the brainchild of pianist Kuba Stankiewicz, who has explored Young’s musical legacy for many years.
Interviewed by the Polish Press Agency, he said that it all started with his youthful passion for American movies such as Rio Grande, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Around the World in Eighty Days. “I remember Victor Young’s name in the credits; his music has made a great impression on me”, he said, adding that Young’s output, including jazz evergreens such as "Stella by Starlight", "Beautiful Love" and "Johnny Guitar", stands comparison with George Gershwin.
Born in Wrocław, south-western Poland, in 1963, Stankiewicz is one of the leading Polish jazz pianists. He made his debut playing with stars such as Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski and Zbigniew Namysłowski. After graduating in 1990 from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he set up his own group. He is a professor at the Instrumental Studies Department of the Music Academy in Wrocław. His discography includes a CD “Stankiewicz plays Young”, which was recorded in Los Angeles, with Darek Oleszkiewicz (bass) and Peter Erskine (drums).
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