User:FingerWiki/Evgeny Pobozhiy

Evgeny Borisovich Pobozhiy (born December 15, 1988) is a Russian jazz guitarist, composer and teacher.

He collaborated with such artists and groups as the Moscow Jazz Orchestra and Igor Butman's Quintet, Georgy Garanyan Big Band, Antonio Sanchez, John Daversa, Alex Sipiagin, Anton Davidyants, Federico Malaman, Gergo Borlai, Mohini Dey, Justin Vasquez, Ruslan Sirota.

Soloist of the Moscow Jazz Orchestra Igor Butman. Leads his own jazz group.

Winner of the International Competition for Guitarists of the Institute of Jazz.

Biography
Born into a family of chemical engineers. According to the musician, he wanted to study the guitar under the influence of the recordings of the group Deep Purple. From the age of 9 he studied classical guitar at a music school. He performed in local rock bands. He became interested in jazz at the age of 15-16.

In 2007, he completed a two-month internship at the Berkeley College of Music.

In 2011 he won the Kim Nazaretov Competition for Young Jazz Performers.

In 2012, he graduated as an external student from the Faculty of Pop and Jazz Music of the Rostov State Conservatory (Rostov-on-Don, Russia).

From 2012 to 2015 he worked as a teacher at the Rostov State College of Arts in the class of jazz guitar, ensemble and improvisation. He collaborated with leading bands in the south of Russia, including Project Combo, Rostov Fusion Band, Jazz Travel Big Band. Has taken part in many Russian jazz festivals.

Since 2015 he has been a soloist with the Moscow Jazz Orchestra and Quintet of Igor Butman. As part of the orchestra, he took part in the world's largest jazz festivals: Montreal International Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival.

He is actively developing his solo career.

Awards
Winner of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Competition 2019. The status of this competition, for musicians performing jazz, roughly corresponds to the Tchaikovsky Competition in classical music. Winning the competition means the guitarist is recognized as the best young jazzman in the world.

The jury of the competition included such leading jazz guitarists of the past 40 years as Stanley Jordan, Lionel Loueke, Russell Malone, Pat Matheny, Chico Pinheiro, Lee Rithenaur and John Scofield. The jury members noted that Pobozhiy surpassed the other participants in "communication skills" in the way he conveyed his music to the audience and the ensemble. They also noted his "deft" interaction with the rhythm section and how he combined his passages with the saxophone part.

Evgeny became the first Russian to win this competition. According to some music critics, this victory is one of the main musical events of 2019 in Russia.