Vadim Neselovskyi is a Ukrainian pianist and composer based in New York City. He currently serves as a professor of jazz piano at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston, Massachusetts. Neselovskyi joined 6-Time Grammy Winner

Gary Burton Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz Vibraphone, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused ...

’s Generations Quintet of future all-stars including

Julian Lage Julian Price Lage ( ; born December 25, 1987) is an American guitarist and composer. A child prodigy, Lage performed at the 2000 Grammy Awards at age 12, and at 15 became a faculty member of the Stanford Jazz Workshop. He released his debut a ...

, Luques Curtis, and James Williams in 2004 and has been working as Gary Burton’s pianist and arranger for more than a decade, touring the US, Europe, and Japan. His recent appearances with Burton include

Newport Jazz The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, rag ...

Festival (with Marcus Gilmore on drums),

Chicago Jazz Festival The Chicago Jazz Festival is an admission-free, four-day annual jazz festival in Chicago's Millennium Park. It is run by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and programmed with the assistance of Jazz Institute of Chicago during ...

and Detroit Jazz Festival. His work can be heard on three Gary Burton’s recordings: Next Generation (Concord) as a pianist, composer and arranger, If You Love Me (Cam Jazz) as an arranger and on Common Ground (Mack Avenue) as a composer. The "Next Generation" CD has reached Nr.1 on Jazzweek chart in US on April 27, 2005.

Early life and education

Born on November 8, 1977, in Odessa, Ukraine, he was the youngest student at age 15 to be accepted into the Odessa Conservatory, and he then moved to Dortmund, Germany, when he was 17 years old. Shortly after arriving in Germany, Neselovskyi established himself on the local jazz scene, taking part in the Dusseldorf Jazz Rally and Leipzig Jazz Days. After a few years, he moved to the USA to further his studies at the

Berklee Berklee College of Music () is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level ...

College of Music, where he was asked to play and compose for a Berklee’s promotional recording produced by

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He was the leader of the Pat Metheny Group (1977–2010) and continues to work in various small-combo, duet, and solo settings, as well as other side pr ...

that also featured

Esperanza Spalding Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984), sometimes professionally known with the stylized name of esperanza spalding, is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Aw ...

and

Christian Scott Christian Scott may refer to: * Christian Scott (baseball) (born 1999), American baseball player * Christian Scott (musician) Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah () (born March 31, 1983, formerly Christian Scott) is an American jazz trumpeter, multi-instr ...

. The next stage of his education took place at the

Thelonious Monk Institute The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization founded in 1986. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, but was then renamed after its longtime board chairman, Herbie Hancock. The i ...

, where he was awarded a full scholarship as the pianist of an ensemble that was handpicked by

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary comp ...

, and

Terence Blanchard Terence Oliver Blanchard (born March 13, 1962) is an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He has also written two operas and more than 80 film and television scores. Blanchard has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Original Score for ''B ...

. During this time, he toured internationally with Herbie Hancock,

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...

Dee Dee Bridgewater Dee Dee Bridgewater (née Denise Garrett, May 27, 1950) is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National ...

, and

Terri Lyne Carrington Terri Lyne Carrington (born August 4, 1965) is an American jazz drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets (band), ...

and shared the stage with artists such as

John Scofield John Scofield (born December 26, 1951) is an American guitarist and composer. His music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention as part of the band of Miles Davis; he ...

Kurt Rosenwinkel Kurt Rosenwinkel (born October 28, 1970) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, keyboardist and record label owner. Biography Born in Philadelphia to a musical family, Rosenwinkel began taking piano lessons when ...

Benny Golson Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024) was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a p ...

Nicholas Payton Nicholas Payton (born September 26, 1973) is an American trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist. A Grammy Award winner, he is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a writer who comments on subjects including music, race, politics, and life i ...

, and

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing ...

Career

His solo piano album ''Music for September'' (Sunnyside Records, 2013) was produced by

Fred Hersch Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and a 17-time Grammy nominée. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than ...

and received a 4-star review in ''

Down Beat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

.''. It was named one of the "Best of 2013" by jazz critics

Ted Gioia Ted Gioia (born October 21, 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian. He is author of 12 books, including ''Music: A Subversive History'', '' The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', ''The History of Jazz'' and ''Delta Blues'' ...

and Bob Blumenthal. Reviewers found the record “unique, surprising”, carrying “its own thoughtful signature” (Christopher Barton, ''

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

''), “masterful”, reaching “places few pianists could reach with any piece” (Steve Boudreau, ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

''). Brad Farberman of ''Down Beat'' called the album's version of “Body and Soul” “gripping, unique…a reminder that standards are only as worn-out as we allow them to be”. The success of ''Music for September'' resulted in solo tours across Europe, the US, Korea, and Japan, including a rare 2-night solo piano engagement at Tokyo’s prestigious

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a 20th-century nightclub in New York City. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, then briefly in the midtown Theater District until 1940. The club operated during the United States' era of P ...

and a concert for Da Camera Music Society of Los Angeles. Another long-standing project, a duo with the unique Alphorn/Frenchhorn virtuoso Arkady Shilkloper (

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...

) has been consistently touring Europe, and he also put out two albums on the German Neuklang Label. Neselovskyi's work has been covered by ''Down Beat'', WBGO,

WKCR WKCR-FM (89.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the station traces its history back to 1908 with the first operations o ...

, and

Bay Area News Group Bay Area News Group (BANG) is the largest publisher of daily and weekly newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including its flagship ''The Mercury News''. A subsidiary of the Denver-based MediaNews Group, its corporate headquarters is in San ...

in the US, Jazzthetik, Jazzpodium, Neue Musik Zeitung,

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...

and

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (; "North German Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to NDR (), is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, ...

in Germany, MMJazz in Korea, National Radio and TV in Ukraine, RTP Noticias in Portugal. In 2010 German Neue Musik Zeitung ( NMZ) included him on its list of the best musicians of 2010. His compositions have been covered by jazz stars such as

Randy Brecker Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock music, rock, and R&B. Early life Brecker was ...

Antonio Sanchez Anthony Sanchez, Antonio Sanchez or Tony Sanchez may refer to: Sports * Antón (footballer) (1914–2005), Spanish footballer born ''Antonio Sánchez Valdés'' * Antonio Sánchez (boxer) (1905–?), Spanish boxer * Antonio Sánchez (footballer, ...

Scott Colley Scott Colley (born November 24, 1963) is an American jazz double bassist and composer. As of 2024, he had been nominated for 4 Grammy Awards, including Best Jazz Instrumental Album for '' Guided Tour'' in 2014 and '' Still Dreaming'' in 2019. Duri ...

, Gary Burton, and also by Symphony Orchestras in the US ( Spokane Symphony and Lancaster Symphony, and Europe ( and INSO Lviv Symphony). A composition called “San Felio” was recorded by Canadian saxophonist and

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired ...

artist Daniel Gauthier for his album ''Spirito Latino''. This recording subsequently received an

ECHO Award Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and was set up to honor ...

: Classic Without Borders. In 2016, the Festival at Sandpoint commissioned Vadim Neselovskyi to create a 50-minute four-suite suite for piano and symphony orchestra. Its premiere took place on August 14, 2016, which attracted more than a thousand listeners and received standing ovations.

Selected discography

As a Leader

* ''Spring Song'' (Vadim Neselovskyi Group feat. Amanda Baisinger, Eric Bloom, Oleg Osenkov and Pedro Ito) Released 2007 * ''Music for September'' (Solo Piano), Sunnyside Records 2013, produced by

, liner notes by

* ''Get Up and Go'' (Vadim Neselovskyi Trio feat. Ronen Itzik on drums, Dan Loomis on bass and special guest vocalist Sara Serpa), JazzFamily Records, Release Date: March 2017

With
Gary Burton Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz Vibraphone, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused ...

* ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' (Gary Burton Quintet feat.

, Vadim Neselovskyi, Luques Curtis, James Williams),

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

2005

Duo with Arkady Shilkloper

* ''Last Snow'' (Artbeat Records 2013) * ''Krai'' (Neuklang 2014) * ''Lustrum'' (Neuklang), Release Date 2017

As composer

* '' Common Ground'' (

New Quartet feat.

Mack Avenue Records Mack Avenue Records is an independent record label in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. Background Mack Avenue was founded in 1999 by Gretchen Carhartt Valade, a jazz fan and Chairperson, chair of the American apparel company Carhartt. The company ...

2011 * ''Spirito Latino'' (Daniel Gauthier), MDG Records , 2005

As featured guest and composer

* ''Mixtura'' (Luba Mason Group, produced by

Jimmy Haslip James Robert Haslip (born December 31, 1951) is an American bass guitarist who was a founding member of the jazz fusion group the Yellowjackets, which he left in 2012. He was also an early user of the five-string electric bass. Early life and ...

, appearing on Neselovskyi's composition "Last Snow" together with

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neselovskyi, Vadim Ukrainian pianists Ukrainian composers 1977 births Living people 21st-century Ukrainian pianists Sunnyside Records artists

Early life and education

Career

Selected discography

As a Leader

With Gary Burton Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz Vibraphone, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused ...

Duo with Arkady Shilkloper

As composer

As featured guest and composer

References

With
Gary Burton Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz Vibraphone, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused ...