Lukasz Zyta

Lukasz Zyta (b. 1975 in Bydgoszcz, Poland) - received his initial musical education at the Arthur Rubinstein Primary and Secondary School of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland.He studied at and received his Master's Degree from the Jazz Institute of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland in 1998.His debut on the jazz stage was in 1993 - at Krakow's Jazz Juniors competition - as a member of the group Youth Formation. He was awarded First Prize at that same competition in 1995, when he appeared with the group Joint Venture, with whom he went on to take top honors at the Jazz Standards Festival in Siedlce (1996), as well as a Most Promising Group award at the European Jazz Competition in Hoeilaart, Belgium (1996). In 1998, he was First Prize Laureate at the Jazz Drummers' Competition in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, as well as receiving an Individual Distinction at the “Jazz Nad Odra” Festival in Wroclaw.He has performed, toured and/or recorded with a wide range of musicians, including a number of internationally renowned artists, many of whom he continues to work with on a regular basis. He has worked or works with a number of Poland's leading jazz musicians, including saxophonists Janusz Muniak, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, Tomasz Szukalski, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Andrzej Olejniczak, Maciej Sikala, Henryk Miskiewicz and Piotr Baron; guitarist Jaroslaw Smietana, Marek Napiórkowski, trumpeter Piotr Wojtasik,Robert Majewski, trombonist Grzegorz Nagórski, pianists Wojciech Karolak, Artur Dutkiewicz, Kuba Stankiewicz, Joachim Mencel, Wojciech Majewski, Michal Tokaj and Piotr Wylezol, as well as bassists Andrzej Cudzich and Darek „Oles” Oleszkiewicz, Jacek Niedziela, Michal Baranski, among many others. His experience in accompanying vocalists is extensive, having worked with a range of singers that represents several generations of Poland's vocal jazz scene – Ewa Bem, Urszula Dudziak, Grazyna Auguscik, Iza Zajac, and currently with Aga Zaryan (Agnieszka Skrzypek). Some of the other artists he has worked with are: Bennie Maupin, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith,Lee Konitz, Dino Saluzzi, David Murray, David Friedman, Bobby Watson, Brad Terry, Tuna Otenel, William Galison, Jaromir Honzak, David Doruzka, Steve Logan, Josefine Lindstrand, and others.Besides playing in jazz clubs and major concert venues throughout Poland, he has performed - to date – in: Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.