Vincent Pongracz

INFOBOX

BIOGRAPHY

“Pongrácz is a young arranger and composer that must be taken seriously. He fortunately also plays his instrument very well.“ – Mathias Rüegg

Vincent Pongrácz (born 1985 in Vienna) is an Austrian saxophone and clarinet player, composer and arranger.He graduated in 2013 at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW). Pongrácz was invited to lead the stage band at the jazz club Porgy & Bess in Vienna for the concert season 2012/13 . In 2019 Pongrácz was commissioned to write the music for the contemporary jazz opera Leelah which is being performed by the Jazzorchester Vorarlberg, Renee Benson and himself. The program has so far been hosted by festivals and concert venues including the Popfest Wien, Porgy & Bess, Jazz & The City and the Jazzwerkstatt Bern. In 2020 he received a Staatsstipendium for composition from the Austrian Ministry of Art and Culture and was selected by the European Forum Alpbach to write a piece for their 75 year anniversary which will be performed in 2021 by Klangforum Wien.

VIDEO

RELATED ARTICLES

Austrian Jazz Award Winners 2024

For its inaugural year, the Austrian Jazz Award has chosen three winners for 2024, each of which will perform at a gala at Vienna’s Porgy & Bess on December 5th and will receive a cash … read more »

Austrian Music Highlights: May 2024

May! A month on the cusp of spring and summer, where the mornings are still cool and the year still seems full of promise (even though we’re already coming up on the halfway point). The … read more »

Mood Music for Surrealists: Vincent Pongracz & the Synesthetic Octet

Austrian musician/composer Vincent Pongracz’s Synesthetic Octet may stand for a variety of things, musically speaking, but the commonplace is not among them. Their style is tough to pin down – a mixture of contemporary classical … read more »