From Marcin's website: www.marcinmasecki.com I was born in Warsaw in 1982. When I was six months old I moved with my parents to Popayan, Colombia. My father, a clarinetist, started teaching me simple harmony, rhythm and singing when I was three. At the age of seven I moved with my mother to San Fransisco where I began taking piano lessons. A year later I moved back to Poland and continued studies with my grandmother - one of the best piano teachers I know. Since I was seen improvising little melodies here and there I was also sent to my first jazz piano teacher, Jurek Kossacz. By the time I was 12 I was a regular at the weekly jam sessions in Akwarium Jazz Club in Warsaw. At 14 I entered the F. Chopin secondary music school. Around this time I started playing in my first band, a trio with Wojtek Pulcyn and Grzegorz Grzyb. We toured the various jazz competitions in Poland and won a few awards (listed below). At the "Jazz nad Odra" competition in 1998 I became friends with members of another band - "Acoustic Jazz Sextet". A week later I joined the group and we decided to go under the name "Alchemik". Between 1998 and 2004 we recorded three albums and played a bunch of concerts in Poland, France, Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria and Spain. We also won the main prize at the Jazz Hoeilaart '98 competition. We had a blast. During those years I also played in a band called Oxen. There we played an electric, more agressive jazz. We recorded one album "Nexo", played some of the wildest concerts I've been part of, and then unfortunately the band disolved. In 2000 I graduated from the F.Chopin music school and received a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. There I spent two very intense years full of important moments. One of those was a lesson with trombonist Hal Crook (a teacher famous for being able to change a student's life during one lesson) who indeed completely changed the way I looked at music. Another important moment was my encounter with Ziv Ravitz (drummer) and Garth Stevenson (bassist). The three of us participated in a quite spontaneus recording session, the result of which convinced us to immediately start a band. We named ourselves TAQ. Unfortunately a couple of months later I graduated from Berklee and had to return to Poland. It's not easy, but we manage to organize concert tours at least a couple of times a year. Our last concert in Poland was recorded and will be released as CD and DVD in th summer of 2006. After Berklee I oscillated between Poland and Argentina (which is where my wife is from) quite a few times. In March 2005 we got married and a month later we moved to Warsaw where we're planing on staying for a while. At the moment I am involved in mainly four projects: TAQ, duo with singer Candelaria Saenz Valiente (my wife), duo with drummer Sebastian Frankiewicz, and solo concerts. I am also pianist in the Zbigniew Wegehaupt Quartet and in the Innocent Sorcerers band. Rogardless of all this, I am always involved in the classical music experience - in many ways, my favourite music making. Lately I am quite close to obsessed with the classical era. In May, I organized a recording session on a beautiful clavichord in Grimbergen, Belgium. I recorded sonatas and fantasias by W.A.Mozart, which I am hoping to release somehow Awards solo: First Prize in International Jazz PIano Competition in Moscow, 2005. with Alchemik Grand Prix at the Jazz Hoeilaart competition in Brussels, 1998. Also individual prize for best soloist of the festival. with Wojtek Pulcyn and Grzegorz Grzyb First Prize at the Jazz Siedlce competition, 1998. "The Key to Career" prize in the Pomorska Jesien Jazzowa festiwal, 1998. Second Prize at the Jazz Sarteano festival in Sarteano Italy, 1998. Award at the Jazz Juniors competiton in Krakow, 1998. Award at the Jazz nad Odra competition in Wroclaw, 1998.