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Igor Kogan

Igor Kogan is a jazz artist, bassist, composer and bandleader. He has performed at prestigious venues and festivals in U.S., Canada and Europe, including Jazz at Lincoln Center and Steinway Hall (New York), Bern Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Toronto Music Festival (Canada), Red Sea Jazz Festival (Israel); and appeared at renowned jazz clubs Smalls, Zinc, Fat Cat (New York); Herb Alpert’s Vibrato, Blue Whale, Vitellos, The Lighthouse (Los Angeles) among other venues.

Born in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, he started to play violin at age 7. He immigrated to Israel at the age of 15 where he simultaneously pursued his interest in music and science, and started to play bass and compose music. Later, he attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, from which he graduated with honors and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Performance and Composition. His teachers included legendary bassists Reggie Workman, Ben Street and Mike Richmond.

After spending several years in New York, working as a performing and recording musician, he relocated to Los Angeles in 2014, where he keeps busy composing and performing music for variety of projects and live concerts, and leading his own Jazz Quintet and 17 piece Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. He recently recorded his debut jazz album, featuring 9-time Grammy Award nominee jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton.

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“Kogan seeks to mix together aspects of jazz and classical in his writing, featuring arrangements that are always forward-looking and individual while also being accessible… Throughout the night, the obviously well-rehearsed band was impressive. Fans of modern jazz orchestra are well advised to check out the Igor Kogan Big Band”. ~ Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian and author, Los Angeles Jazz Scene.

“I recognized at once that Igor is an exceptional composer with a very strong talent for contemporary composition… Because of the quality of his remarkable musicianship as performer and composer in contemporary classical and jazz idiom, I am confident that Mr. Kogan is well on his way to joining the ranks of top musicians in the American music industry, and on the international level. Already, during the last few years, he has made an outstanding contribution to musical culture in California”. ~ Deon Nielsen Price, President Emeritus of NACUSA (National Association of Composers USA).