Karol Ferfecki

Jazz guitarist born in 1957. Guitar graduate (class of Edmund Jurkowski, PhD) of the Faculty of Jazz and Popular Music at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.

Laureate of the 3rd National Jazz Improvisation Competition in Katowice. Since his graduation, he has been related to the Katowice academy, where he has taught guitar at the Faculty of Composition, Interpretation, Education and Jazz. Between 1995 and 2005, he served as the Head of the Department for Instrumental and Vocal Performance at the Jazz Institute of the above mentioned faculty. In 1994, he used to work as jazz guitar instructor at Southwest Texas State University (USA). Since 2008, he has been also teaching guitar at the Jazz Institute of the State Higher Vocational School in Nysa. His numerous graduates include Krzysztof Barcik, Artur Lesicki, Daniel Popiałkiewicz, Grzegorz Kapołka, Piotr Domagała, Piotr Olszewski, and Konrad Zemler. Additionally to his ties with the Academy of Music in Katowice, he was also bound with the Music Institute at the University of Silesia in Katowice, where he worked from 1984 to 2012 as the jazz guitar instructor and lecturer of the fundamentals of jazz harmony and improvisation. He has been actively animating music life and popularising art at his Alma Mater, as well as behind its walls. Furthermore, he conducts jazz lectures and workshops in Polish music schools and abroad. For his organisational activity and outstanding pedagogical achievements, in 1996 he was honoured with the rector’s award. Apart from academic and didactic work, he has also been an active studio and concert performer. His artistic career brought co-operations with numerous acclaimed jazz musicians, including Witold Szczurek, Jerzy Główczewski, Stanisław Sojka, Jacek Pelc, Artur Dutkiewicz, Russell Scanlon, Peter Polka, and Audrey Moutand. He was also lucky to work with large orchestras, such as Jerzy Jarosik’s big-band of the Rozrywka Theatre in Chorzów or the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. With the latter, he has been working for over 10 years now, participating in recordings, concerts and festivals of contemporary and film music of such composers as Kazimierz Serocki, Zygmunt Krauze, Alfred Schnittke, Fausto Romitelli, or Nino Rota.