Rafał Sarnecki - jazz guitarist, composer, arranger born in 1982 in Warsaw, Poland. He started playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2002 he graduated from the Krzysztof Komeda School of Music in Warsaw and begun studying in the jazz program of the Fryderyk Chopin School of Music. He started to gain recognition in Poland after his success at the International Jazz Guitar Competition - Guitar City 2002 in Warsaw where he got the 1st award.
Besides playing the guitar Rafal was always very passionate about physics. In 2000 he won the 1st prize in Poland at the 49th Physics Olympiad for high school students and he represented Poland at the 30th International Physics Olympiad in Leicester, UK. In the same year he began studying physics at Warsaw University. In 2005 Rafal graduated from Warsaw University with Academic Honors and recived a MS degree in physics.
In the same year Rafal received a scholarship at the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program in The New School University in New York. In September 2005 he moved to USA to study at The New School. In December 2008 he graduated from the New School with Academic Honors and decided to continue his education at the graduate jazz program in CUNY Queens College. During that time Rafal studied with such musicians as: Paul Bollenback, Buster Williams, Peter Bernstein, Reggie Workman, John Hicks, Adam Nussbaum, Ari Hoenig, Ben Street. Later in 2015, he received a Ph.D. in composition from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
Living in the Big Apple Rafal was involved in a variety of musical projects such as: Lucas Pino Nonet, Annie Chen Group and David Bertrand Quartet. In 2008 he started his New York sextet which features: Lucas Pino (ts), Bogna Kicinska (voice), Glenn Zaleski (p), Rick Rosato (b) and Colin Stranahan (d). As a leader of his own projects Rafal has toured China, South Korea, Malaysia, Chile, Israel, the East and West Coast of the US and many European countries. Festival appearances include: Blue Note Jazz Festival (New York), Jarasum International Jazz Festival (South Korea), All Souls Jazz Festival (Chicago), South by South West (Houston), Penang Jazz Festival (Malaysia), Euro Jazz Festival (Mexico), Ninegates Festival (China), Guangzhou Jazz Festival (China) to list a few.
Rafal has recorded four CDs as a leader and twenty as a sideman. Two of his albums: Song From a New Place (2008, ARMS Records) and Cat's Dream (2014, BJURecords) were nominated for the Fryderyk award, the Polish equivalent of a Grammy. The Madman Rambles Again (2011, Fresh Sound) was selected as among the best jazz albums of 2011 (Dave Sumner's Best Releases of 2011). Rafal's newest album Climbing Trees was released on Outside in Music on July 27, 2018.
In 2015 a group musicians in Kyiv, Ukraine started a sextet project dedicated to Rafal's music, performing compositions from all of his albums. They performed six concerts in different cities of Ukraine advertised as 'Tribute to Rafal Sarnecki'.
Besides his career as a performer and composer Rafal is also very active as an educator. He has been invited to teach masterclasses and workshops at colleges around the world including: University of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff, USA), Contemporary Music Academy of Beijing (China), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (Guangzhou, China), Universidad de Xalapa (Mexico), Łódź Music Conservatory (Poland). He also has been invited to join the faculty of Summer jazz camps in: Jilin University of the Arts (Changchun, China, 2017), Chodzież (Poland 2012-2018), Puławy (Poland, 2015-2016), Leszno (Poland, 2015-2016).
Rafal has written a few articles which were published in prominent music press:
- an article about stage freight written for the JazzEd Magazine (coming out in the Summer 2018)
- three articles about science of music published by Top Guitar magazine
- an article about the history of jazz music in China published by the Jazz Forum magazine
- interviews with such artists as: Dave Kikoski, Walter Smith III, Colin Stranahan and Spike Wilner published by the Jazzarium.pl website
In 2018 Rafal moved back to Warsaw. Currently he is an adjunct profesor at the University of Music in Łódź.