PIANOHOOLIGAN | PIOTR ORZECHOWSKI

Since his much-acclaimed triumph in Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition (Switzerland, 2011), this pianist, improviser, and composer has remained one of Poland’s most exciting music artists. His projects provoke questions and redefining the stereotypes of the creative act and stage performance. Each new album becomes a major event that carries a non-obvious message across genre boundaries and reaches all the continents in its concert version.

Pianohooligan’s individual musical language spans across stylistic boundaries, from his home base in improvised and classical music to avant-garde and electronics. An uncompromising deconstructor of Krzysztof Penderecki’s works, he has also been an artistic partner of NOSPR (Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra) and the Sinfonia Varsovia, stars of the world’s jazz scene such as Randy Brecker, Avishai Cohen, Carlos Zíngaro, as well as such great classical contemporary and electronic music personalities as Philip Glass, Adrian Utley of Portishead, and William Basinski, to name but a few. Most of all, however, Orzechowski focuses on his original solo works, which defy simple genre classifications.

Orzechowski’s acclaimed, pioneering music releases include Dziady (2019, Anaklasis/PWM) for jazz quartet (a joint project with a galaxy of ambient music giants), the monumental solo programme 24 Preludes & Improvisations (2017, Decca Classics), whose form draws on J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the radical Experiment: Penderecki (2012, Decca Classics), created in collaboration with the composer himself and offering an effective impulse for artistic dialogue between jazz and contemporary music.

Pianohooligan’s accolades include Onet web portal’s O!Lśnienia as well as nominations for the Fryderyk Award and the Coryphaeus of Polish Music. He has been regularly awarded by such major press titles as Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, Jazz Forum, and the broadcaster RadioJAZZ.FM.

The artist graduated from Berklee College of Music and the Faculty of Philosophy at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University. Pianohooligan’s fourth, most recent solo album, Critique of Swing in Two Parts, is a simultaneously warm-hearted and analytic look at the phenomenon of swing, which questions its earlier, common interpretations.


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I always hesitate to use the word ‘genius’ but in Piotr’s case that would be justified.
He has devoted his young life to music and the pursuit of excellence.

Simply put, I think Orzechowski is a stunning pianist, composer, and musician, one of the very best I have ever played with, and I have played with everyone from Herbie Hancock to Horace Silver.

Randy Brecker

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An outstanding pianist and composer [...]

He's a remarkably talented young man, endowed with a wild imagination. Able to exploit the interior of the piano with drumsticks, he can play a variation on "Polymorphia" on the piano strings. He can do something I probably couldn't.


Krzysztof Penderecki

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An extraordinarily mature pianist; his great sensitivity and exceptional musical imagination permit him to arrange works, which appear to be untouchable.

Zbigniew Namysłowski

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Obviously to make music of such a high level you have to be more than talented... I am certain this young man will develop into a world-class musician enriching us with unforgettable musical emotions.

Vladyslav 'Adzik' Sendecki