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Uraz Kıvaner was born in Ankara in 1979. He had an interest in piano at the age of five. He started his music education at Istanbul Anatolian High School for Fine Arts. He chose viola as his main instrument and performed as a viola player in several orchestras. Kıvaner then changed his main instrument to piano, because of his love of jazz music. He studied Jazz Piano Performance in the Music Department of Istanbul Bilgi University with a scholarship and graduated in 2003.
Kıvaner has performed in pubs and many jazz clubs, music halls, TV Shows and festivals such as the 10th Istanbul Jazz Festival (young Fest), Kas Jazz Festival of Antalya, Krakow Jazz Festival, Warsaw Old Town Jazz Festival, and Olsztyn Olsztynskie Jazz Forum Festival. He has performed with many legendary Turkish and foreign musicians including Lew Tabackin, Monty Waters, Rusty Jones, Scott Steed, Reggie Jackson, Miles Griffith, Tony Jones, Bill Barron, Victor Campbell, Tuna Otenel, Imer Demirer, Janusz Muniak, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Andrzej Dobrowski, and Janusz Kozlowski; Kıvaner has also performed with famous vocalists such as Manu La Prince, Laika Fatien, Deborah Davis, Sibel Kose, Selen Beytekin, Dolunay Obruk, Melis Sökmen, Fatih Erkoç, Elif Çağlar, Aga Zaryan, Agnieszka Wilczynska, Nukhet Ruacan, Janusz Szrom, and Andrzej Dobrowski. In 2007 Kıvaner performed his own project “The Modern Sounds of Latin Jazz” at Nardis Jazz Club in Istanbul. In the same year he had the privilege to perform with Wallace Roney Quintet as a pianist at JC’S Istanbul. Since then, Kıvaner has been performing in the most prestigious Jazz Festivals in Turkey and Europe as a soloist as well as a member of a group such as Ozan Musluoğlu Quartet, Selen Beytekin Project, LaDescarga Latin Band and Burhan Öçal′s "Jazz in Caravanserai."
Kıvaner made a small tour in Turkey with the famous American Jazz Vocal Kathy Kosins and Turkish Jazz musicians including Önder Focan, Kağan Yıldız and Ferit Odman. Kıvaner is well respected by lots of jazz critics around the world and is considered as one of the most talented young pianist in the world. His style is noticeably a combination of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal, who are legendary pianists. In 2012 he released his first album "PIECES" under the label REC BY SAATCHI. Kıvaner is a winner of the solo instrumental category and one of 5 finalists for the most popular online Jazz Competition “The Made in New York Jazz Competition” in 2015. He was invited to New York City to perform on the Gala Event.
Reference: urazkivaner.com
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