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 in NYC (Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Smalls, Zinc, Fat Cat), Los Angeles (Herb Alpert’s Vibrato, Catalina, Blue Whale, Vitellos, The Lighthouse) among other venues. 

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Born in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, he started to play violin at age seven. He immigrated to Israel at the age of fifteen 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 "In a Big City" of original compositions and featuring 9-time Grammy Award nominee jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton.  

 

Besides leading his own groups and recording projects, Igor stays busy performing and recording for other artists, projects and recording sessions in a variety of genres, including jazz, classical, pop, rock, Klezmer, world music, Broadway musicals, film/TV scores. As a sideman bass player he has performed with Plas Johnson, Jerome Jennings, Joey Morant, Valery Ponomarev, Leonid Ptashka, Oleg Butman, Anat Cohen, Mike Price, Mitch Manker, Shlomo Gronich, Alon Oleartchik, Maya Avraham and others.

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After spending several years in New York, working as a performing and recording musician, he became involved in Broadway productions as an arranger/orchestrator, and later as a composer. This led to develop his composing skills and to work on films, TV and media projects, as well as stage productions and live shows. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2014, where he continues to work as a composer, arranger and orchestrator on variety of projects including jazz and orchestral concert music as well as commercial projects, film/TV scores and trailers, recording sessions and Broadway musicals. Being inspired from both jazz and classical traditions, he combines these two musical worlds in his writing.