Oskar Rozsa
Born: July 22, 1974, Bratislava, Slovakia
- raised in a family of musicians
- played various instruments form very early childhood
- besides classical piano studies, played the bass guitar and the drums
Education
1988
- admitted to the Bratislava Conservatory as an exceptional talent as a zero-year student of orchestral conduction
- while studying, co-founded the Ensemble of Contemporary Music with the composer Marek Brezovsky, conducting several 20th century compositions
1993
- continued the same major at the Faculty of Music and Dance of the University of Performing Arts in the classes of professor Bystrik Rezucha and Zdenek Bilek
1999
- graduated with The Slovak State Philharmonic, Kosice (Brezovsky, Copland, Barber, Brahms)
2000
- offered a scholarship at Berklee College of Music, Boston, continued to study film scoring
Professional experience
Inspired and led by his father, has had experience with arrangements and studio recording work since childhood
1993
- began his cooperation with Dezo Ursiny-jazz-blues legend/ as a studio musician which caught the attention of diverse record companies (Universal, Sony, BMG, Monitor) for which he later worked as a session musician, music arranger and producer
1993 – 2008
- produced more than 70 pop/rock music and jazz/fusion albums for many Czech and Slovak artists .
- continuous collaboration with the legend of the Slovak big beat/art-rock Marian Varga
- cooperated as a sideman with many notable personalities of the modern Slovak jazz scene (Jonas, Skuta, Stivin, Tatar, Krajnak, Sramek, Bartos, Priehradnik, Tariska, Suchomel, Buntaj, Valihora, Griglak, Sevcik,Stveracek)
1998
- as a founder of the band “Free Faces”, received the Newcomer of the Year Award of the Association of Authors and Performing Artists of Slovakia
2000
- -received the “Dosky 2000” Award for the best scenic music,with M.Brezovsky (A.P.Chekhov: The Seagull, director: V.Sprusansky)
2001
- band “Free Faces”, received the Band of the Year Award of the Academy of Popular Music - “Aurel 2001”(grand Prix IFPI)
- wrote music for several theatre plays, documents (e.g. the award winning “The Tatras – A Mystery”) and 3 feature movie scores.
2003
- together with Lubor Priehradnik, co-founded the drum’n’bass/Worldmusic band “Barflies” that debuted with the CD “Short Stories”.
- 2004 best music producer of the year, AUREL 2004”(grand Prix IFPI) for Zuzana Mojzisova album
The Present
- member of the Dan Brantigan Quartet /with Martin Valihora and John Shannon
- is the driving force of diverse projects focused on improvisation (CD: Oskar Rozsa Sextet)
- produced ambient experimental project PRESENCE with american trumpetist Dan Brantigan and Lubor Priehradnik
- producing album tribute to Jaro Filip(one of the best songwriters in Slovakia) for Richard Muller and Milan Lasica
- producing album for African singer Ibrahim Maiga
- is founder of summer workshops for young musicians “4x4”
- composed movie score for new Slovak feature movie Half Breakdovn dir.Vlado Fisher nominated for the best movie score (Slnko v sieti 2008)
- relased cd Oskar Rozsa Trio:The Universal Cure /with John Shannon and Martin Valihora
Upcoming activities:
-composing a score for the movie “Heaven,Hell….Earth”
-composing and producing album for opera soprano singer Adriana Kucerova
-finishing his own audio/visual project The Hermit and The Ferryman with Lubor Priehradnik
-producing album for blues harmonica player Erich Bobos Prochadzka /Sitra Achra/
AUREL 2008”(grand Prix IFPI)-best instrumentalist of the year (The Universal Cure album)
