Grzegorz Karnas

Biography

Grzegorz Karnas was born in Wodzisław Śląski, Poland, into a family with no academic traditions. During high school, he completed one year of classical guitar at the Szafrankowie Brothers State School of Music in Rybnik. He then spent eight years studying French, English, and Arabic languages, literatures, and cultures at the University of Mikołaj Kopernik in Toruń, the English Teacher Training College in Cieszyn, and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Karnas is a graduate and former teacher of the Jazz Institute of the Academy of Music in Katowice, considered prestigious in Poland. In 1998, he won first prize at the International Jazz Vocalists' Meeting in Zamość, Poland. His debut album "Reinkarnasja" (Not Two 2000) put him on the road touring major jazz clubs and festivals in Poland and Slovakia. Summer 2004 saw the premiere of his self-produced solo project "Sny/Dreams of a Ninth Floor" (DeBies), promoted with concerts in Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, and Romania.

His composition "Dreams" appeared on the compilation "The Best of Polish Jazz 2005." The album "Ballads for the End of the World," featuring Silesian cello player Adam Oleś, was released in April 2006, with promotions continuing into 2007. In 2006, he won first prize at the Young Jazz Singers Competition in Brussels, and in August 2007, he won the Crest Jazz Vocal competition in Crest, southeastern France. The album "Karnas" was released in 2011 by Slovak label Hevhetia.

Live performances from Budapest were produced and released by Hungarian label BMC Records as "Audio Beads" (2012) and "Vanga" (2014). The live album "Power Kiss" (Hevhetia 2017) was recorded during the Karnas Formula Chinese Tour in 2016. Karnas occasionally lectures on improvisation and has conducted workshops in Poland, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He is the spiritus movens and artistic director of the Voicingers Festival, his brain child born in 2008.