Vadim Neselovskyi

Born in Ukraine in 1977, the jazz pianist, composer and university teacher was, as a 15-year-old wunderkind, the youngest student ever to be accepted to the Odessa Conservatory, but he soon thereafter emigrated to Germany, before moving on to the USA in 2001. It was there that Neselovskyi began to explore his Jewish roots, which can be heard on his releases on John Zorn’s label Tzadik. His numerous concert tours in Ukraine, including an appearance at the Lviv Jazz Festival in 2014, gave rise to the idea of creating a musical homage to his home city of Odessa. In the form of a solo piano stroll around the Black Sea city, complete with autobiographical references that find expression in works such as “Jewish Dance”, “Waltz of Odesa Conservatory” and “My First Rock Concert”, Neselovskyi musically revives a beauty that is characterised by a rich cultural heritage and that is, since the Russian war of aggression, under profound threat.