Photo Wojciech Grzędziński

Jury member

Gary Guthman

US-born trumpeter, jazz musician, composer, teacher and lyricist. Credited for being one of the most successful trumpeters in Canada.

Guthman taught trumpet, jazz ensemble and jazz composition on the Canadian faculties of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton and Red Deer College in Red Deer. Between 1976 and 1981, he was principal trumpet of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, and in 1982 he won the position of principal trumpet of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

He performed on all 50 of the internationally acclaimed ITV In Concert series, while appearing with such worldwide greats as Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Burt Bacharach and Charles Aznavour. Guthman toured Canada and the United States performing solo in over 300 philharmonic halls with his productions of Tribute to Harry James and Trumpet Greats featuring his own compositions and orchestrations. In 2004, he was invited by the famous conductor and creator of the New York Pops, Skitch Henderson, to headline at Carnegie Hall with his Tribute to Harry James concert. In the same year, he composed and produced Swingmatism, which premiered at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in Vancouver over many nights. In 2002-2004, the artist starred as a soloist and a conductor in the Broadway-style, award-winning production of Forever Swing, which headlined at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, the Place des Arts in Montreal, Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, the Warner Theatre in Washington, the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre in Toronto and the Los Angeles Theatre in Los Angeles. Since his arrival in Europe in 2007, Guthman has successfully performed his Swing, Swing, Swing at numerous festivals.

The year 2011 saw his release of the jazz album Solar Eclipse, the first to be recorded by an American artist in the entire history of Polish Radio. Guthman composed the music and lyrics for the Woman in Black album (2016), and the music for a tribute to the poetry of Miron Białoszewski entitled Self Portraits (2019). His major orchestral compositions include works for solo harp and orchestra: Master and Margarita (2007) and Concerto Romantico (2018), and for solo trumpet and orchestra ? Concerto for Trumpet (2020). Amongst the artist?s most important projects is the creation of 21 songs and lyrics for the three-hour musical theatre production entitled Letter from Warsaw, which premiered at the Warsaw Chamber Opera Hall in November 2019. It was nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award 2020. Gary Guthman?s latest work is entitled The Traveler; it is a suite for harp, cello, flute and soprano.