Grzegorz Nagórski - NOSPR

Trombonist, euphonium player and composer. He made his professional debut at the Jazz Pianists Festival in Kalisz in 1982 with Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski’s ensemble. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Katowice and the University of Miami in the United States, where he completed his studies in 1993. During this period, he worked with multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan’s Inter/Outer Continental Jazz Quintet and performed with artists including Ray Charles, Tito Puente, Joe Henderson, Jimmy Heath, Michael Brecker, Maria Schneider, Phil Woods, Slide Hampton, Arturo Sandoval, John Fedchock and Red Rodney. From 1995 to 1996, while living in New York, he was a member of the Charlie Persip Super Big Band.

After returning to Poland in 1996, Nagórski continued his artistic career, working with artists and ensembles including Billy Harper, Bob Brookmeyer, Jazz Big-Band Graz, Maria Schneider, Piotr Wojtasik, Adam Pierończyk, Joe Lovano, Billy Cobham, Kirk Lightsey, Michael Philip Mossman, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Chick Corea, Henryk Miśkiewicz, Maciej Sikała, Kuba Stankiewicz, Joakim Milder, Norrbotten Big Band, Bobo Stenson, Robert Majewski, Piotr Wyleżoł, Jacob Collier and Aga Zaryan. He has taken part in the recording of around fifty albums.

In 2007, he formed his own quartet, whose debut album, Dedication, was released in 2008 and received the 2009 Fryderyk Award in the Jazz Debut Album of the Year category. His second release, Over & Over, received three nominations for the 2012 Fryderyk Awards. In 2017, he released The Optimist, an album of his own compositions recorded with his new electric ensemble, the Grzegorz Nagórski Electric Euphonium Quartet. The album was recorded entirely on the euphonium, which he had added to his instrumental repertoire in 2012, and was nominated for the 2017 Fryderyk Award in the Jazz Album of the Year category. All the works on his quartet albums are Nagórski’s own compositions.

From 1996 to 2019, with the exception of 2018, Nagórski was voted Best Jazz Trombonist in the Jazz Forum readers’ Jazz Top poll. He is also highly active as an educator, teaching at the Jazz and Popular Music Faculty of the Academy of Music in Katowice and the Department of Jazz at the Academy of Music in Kraków. He also leads numerous courses and workshops in Poland and abroad. In 2019, he was awarded the title of Professor of Musical Arts.

In August 2024, he served as Artistic Director of the International Big Band Workshops, organised as part of the Artistic Education programme of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage.