Uraz KIVANER was born in Ankara 1979. He started to show interest in piano when he was 5 years old. Because of his love and talent to music he started his music education at Istanbul Anatolian Fine Arts High School .He started to play Viola as main instrument and he has been chosen to several orchestras as a viola player. Then he changed his main instrument as piano because of his love to jazz music and doing compositions. After graduating from his high school with a high degree in 1999 he successfully has been granted for full scholarship at Istanbul Bilgi University Music Department and had the chance to meet and study with very important musicians as teachers graduated from Berkeley University/USA .In 2003 he finished his university with a high degree and graduated from the major of Piano Performance. He performed in lots of concerts, in clubs and jazz clubs, music halls, TV Shows, starting from the age of 16.
10th Istanbul Jazz Festival (young Fest) Kas Jazz Festival of Antalya, Turkey, Krakow Jazz Festival, Warsaw Old Town Jazz Festival 'Jazz na Starowce', Olsztyn Olsztynskie Jazz Forum Festival, Koleczkowo k.Gdyni Jazz na Polanie 'Festival', Warsaw Jazz Club Tygmont, Radio Krakow, Suleczyno Jazz w lesie, Piwnicy pod Baranami, Krakow Jazz Club ‘U Muniaka’, Szczawnica Owczarnia Muzyczna, Pszczyna Muzeum Zamkowe, Warszawa Boathouse, Sopot Hotel Chinski, InterContinental Hotel Warsaw, La Cantina, etc., He has been living in USA for the last one and half Year and playing with Bill Barron Quintet., and he has played with many legendary musicians from USA, Turkey and Poland like; Lew Tabackin, Monty Waters, Rusty Jones, Scott Steed, Reggie Jackson, Miles Griffith, Tony Jones, Bill Barron, Victor Campbell, Tuna Otenel, Imer Demirer, Janusz Muniak, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Andrzej Dobrowski, Janusz Kozlowski, and vocalists Sibel Kose, Agnieszka Skrzypek, Agnieszka Wilczynska, Nuket Ruacan, Janusz Szrom, Andrzej Dobrowski etc
In 2006, he has finished a tour with Tony Jones, Michael Brown and Victor Campbell which consists of Ankara Jazz Festival and 13 concerts in different cities in Poland . In 2007 he performed his new project “Modern Sounds of Latin Jazz†which includes his originals and arrangments both in Turkey and Poland with very important artists such as Luis Ernesto Gomez, William Richard Cardoso, Manu Alban Juarez, Sebastian Frankiewicz and Eylem Pelit. In 2008 April he performed with Wallace Roney Quintet in Istanbul which consists of Eric Allen on Drums,Rashaan Carter on Acoustic Bass, Antoine Roney on Tenor sax and Wallace Roney on Trumpet . Uraz is well respected by lots of jazz critics around the globe and considered as one of the most talented young piano players in the world. His style is noticeably a combination of Oscar Peterson , Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal who are legendary Piano players. Nowadays he’s been working on his album and mixing some Latin flavor to his style as well…
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