Tzumo Arpad Olah

Tzumo Arpad was born on 29 January 1980 into a musical family.He started playing the piano at the age of seven. He studied classical music at the Weiner Leo Conservatory (Hungary Budapest), after he received a scholarship to the Ferenc Erkel School of Jazz Music.His first success was the shared first prize of the Hungarian (Bela Bartok) Radio's talent competition, which was a scholarship for 5-week summer course at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.Since 2001, he has had a lot of success in the international field, as well. In the summer of 2001, Tzumo received the first prize for the best Trio and for being the best soloist at the "Jazz an der Donau" competition.In September 2001, his Trio took part in the Jazz Hoeilaart International Contest competition, For the first time in the competition, Tzumo won all three of the main prizes : for the best Trio , and for the most creative performance piece, and he also received the prize for best European soloist.In the same year, his first record, "My Time"(EMI), came out. In 2002,he also received the full scholarship and continued his studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Joanne Bracken. In 2003 he applied and got accepted to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He has performed with Monk Institute Band, featuring Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Kenny Garret, Clark Terry, Hal Crook ,Terry Lyne Carrington in the United States, Europe and Japan. In 2002, he was also granted the Emerton Award and the prize for the year's Young Jazz Talents from the Hungarian Radio. In 2003 he was selected among the 50 most successful young talented artists.. His record, "My Time", received Hungary's musical award, the Gramophone. He graduated from the Monk Institute of Jazz University of Southern California in 2005.