Krzysztof Herdzin is a graduate of the Secondary Music School and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. He studied piano with Jerzy Sulikowski and Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń. In 1993, he received his diploma and spent three years lecturing at the Academy. He was awarded the Key to the Career at the Pomeranian Jazz Autumn / Pomorska Jesień Jazzowa in 1989 with the band Ostatni Dzwonek, and again in 1993 with the band KGB. In 1990, playing with the band West, he won first prize at the prestigious Jazz Juniors festival.
As an active pianist, he has recorded for Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, as well as playing concerts with a number of other musicians including clarinettist Wojtek Mrozek, flautist Jadwiga Kotnowska and violinist Vadim Brodski. He has also collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin's Live Music Now foundation, and has worked as a church organist.
Television programmes to which Herdzin has contributed include "To było grane" for TVN; "Małe co nieco" and "Tata Show" for TVP's Channel 2; and "Jak oni śpiewają" for Polsat. He has served as a teacher and accompanist at many music workshops, and has acted as music director for a number prestigious events. These include a 1998 series of concerts entitled "Castle Meetings with Poetry" in Olsztyn, Fama 2000 and the 2000 "Teraz Polska" concert, the Offset Festival of Performing Arts and Ryszard Rynkowski's concert "Intymnie" in 2001, the Papal Concerts in Warsaw's Castle Square in 2004 and 2005, Polsat television's 10th anniversary gala in Warsaw in 2006 and the Polish Eagles gala at Warsaw's Teatr Narodowy in 2006 and 2007.
His talent has been recognized by the most eminent figures in Polish jazz, including Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski, Janusz Muniak and Kazimierz Jonkisz, all of whom have invited him to work with them. From 1996 to 2001 he performed with the Zbigniew Namysłowski Band. He also performed with an orchestra and recorded chamber music for Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, working with two world-famous musicians: violinist Vadim Brodski and flautist Jadwiga Kotnowska. He collaborated with the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation as well. He plays both jazz and classical music. Herdzin combines his classical music work with a love of jazz and pop music, collaborating with a number of well-known singers. Over the years he has worked with Kayah, Edyta Górniak, Hanna Banaszak, Andrzej Piasek Piaseczny, Robert Janowski, Anna Maria Jopek, Halina Frąckowiak, Edyta Geppert, Irena Santor, Ewa Bem, Katarzyna Groniec and Ryszard Rynkowski.
Herdzin made his jazz debut while still a student at Bydgoszcz's Secondary Music School, playing with the Big Band group at the Pałac Młodzieży youth centre in Bydgoszcz. He would subsequently appear with the bands West, Ostatni Dzwonek, Jacek Pelc's City Jazz Trio, Kazimierz Jonkisz and Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski's quartet, Eryk Kulm's Quintessence and Mariusz Bogdanowicz's Back to the Bass. He has also worked with names such as Janusz Muniak, Michał Kulenty, Lora Szafran, Zbigniew Górny, Marek Napiórkowski, Adam Cegielski, Marcin Jahr and Jacek Niedziela, as well as Polish pop stars such as Kayah.
His work as a jazz pianist and chamber musician has taken him to Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Britain, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Estonia. He has taken part in the musicals Fame at Warsaw's Teatr Komedia, as well as in Crazy For You, Peter Pan and Five Guys Named Moe at Warsaw's Teatr Roma. From 1996 to 2002 he played in Zbigniew Namysłowski's quartet, and today he gives solo concerts as well as leading his own trio and fusion quartet. He has performed with the some of the world's greatest jazz musicians, including Richard Bona, Mino Cinelu, Castro Neves, Dhafer Youssef, Gary Husband and Brad Terry.
Herdzin has twice received the Key to a Career award for his work as a jazz musician at the Pomeranian Jazz Autumn (1989 and 1993). He also won first prize (along with the band West) at the Jazz Juniors '90 Festival, and third prize at the International Jazz Improvisation Competition in Katowice (1994). He has made several appearances at the Jazz Jamboree Festival as well.
Along from performing, Herdzin is an arranger and a self-taught composer, having written soundtracks for Po sezonie / After the Season directed by Janusz Majewski and Kilka fotografii / A Few Photographs by Marcin Pieczonka. He has composed music for TV commercials as well, including for AIG, Hochland, Kubuś juice and the TVN Foundation. For the past several years he has been working on classical music.As an arranger, Herdzin has collaborated with Janusz Stokłosa on Peter Pan, and has worked with a variety of orchestras. These include the Bydgoszcz Salon Orchestra, Capella Bydgostiensis, the Słupsk Chamber Orchestra, the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra and the Camerata Quartet. He arranged and orchestrated Jan A. P. Kaczmarek's music for Finding Neverland, which won an Academy Award in 2005. Krzysztof Herdzin is also the writer of several dozen songs and jazz themes, as well as film scores.
Herdzin has recorded over 100 albums as a pianist, composer and arranger. He was awarded the "Feliks 2006" by Gazeta Wyborcza, the President of Bydgoszcz City Award in 2005 and 3rd prize at the International Jazz Improvisation Competition in Katowice. He has given concerts all over the world, travelling to places such as Mexico, the USA, India, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. He is a frequent performer at the Jazz Jamboree Festival in Warsaw. Currently, he leads his own acoustic trio and fusion quartet, as well as giving solo performances and working with the vocalist Edyta Geppert and occasional other groups.
Major Compositions:
- Fairy Tales for flute and piano (1992)
- Concertino for piano and orchestra (1993)
- Lyrical Miniatures for baritone and strings (1993)
- Trifle for flute and strings (1996)
- Sonatina for flute and piano (2001)
- Winter Sketches for orchestra
Projects:
Selected discography:
- Chopin (1995)
- Being Confused (1997)
- Seriale, Seriale (1998)
- Almost After (2000)
- Dancing Flowers (2005)
- Live in Tygmont (2006)
- Belcanto Semplice (2008)
Authors: Biography by Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska, December 2007 and Profile by Marek Romański, January 2009.