Curtis Nowosad

Curtis Nowosad has quickly become a first-call drummer in the city of Winnipeg. At twenty, he has already performed in big band and small group settings with some of New York’s finest jazz musicians, including Jon Faddis, Ingrid Jensen, Steve Kirby, Ted Nash, Cynthia Scott, Steve Wilson, and Miguel Zenón. Curtis has also shared the stage with Canadian jazz stars Oliver Jones, Christine Jensen, and Brad Turner. The 2008 Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival saw him perform with numerous small groups, including his own Curtis Nowosad/Keith Price Quintet. He was also a member of Steve Kirby’s Oceanic Jazz Orchestra, a hybrid of Winnipeg’s top jazz and classical musicians, and they performed to a packed house at Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall before Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Curtis plays periodically with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, and recently made his recording debut on Marco Castillo’s 2008 release, Brazilian Season. An enthusiastic student in the University of Manitoba’s new Bachelor of Jazz Studies program, Curtis has studied with and been workshopped by some of the masters of the instrument: Lewis Nash, Terreon Gully, Nasheet Waits, Alvin Atkinson, and several others. He has received several awards for his playing, including an Oliver Jones Scholarship to the U of M. A well-rounded musician, Curtis is active as a private teacher and clinician, and his compositions and arrangements have been performed by several groups in Winnipeg.