Igor Butman Quintet

Igor Butman, saxophone virtuoso, bandleader, club owner and television host, is Russia’s number one jazz personality. Born in 1961 in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg), Igor Butman started playing the clarinet at the age of 11. In 1976 he entered the Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music, where during his second year he dropped the classical clarinet for the jazz saxophone. Besides being taught by the remarkable musician and brilliant teacher Gennady Goldstein, he took unofficial lessons from nightly broadcasts of jazz from 11: 15 p.m. to midnight on Voice of America.

After Igor Butman immigrated to America in 1987, he went on to major in Performance and Composition at Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. By the time Igor arrived in the United States, he already had a “fan club” made up of some of America’s most respected Jazz artists.

Igor’s big sound and boyish exuberance have earned him standing ovations and many new fans, and his US solo career has moved straight ahead. He led his own group with Rachel Z. at Boston’s leading Jazz club, The Regattabar, and has been featured soloist with the Billy Taylor Quartet, the Walter Davis Jr. Quartet and the Monty Alexander Quintet. He appeared on “The Today Show”, “Good Morning America” and numerous other international programs.

Fast forward to 2011, Igor Butman’s 50th anniversary concert featuring Wynton Marsalis, Natalie Cole, Billy Cobham and Christian McBride took place at 6000-seated Kremlin Palace in Moscow, the biggest venue of the country, and became one of the most important events in the history of Russian jazz, according to mass media!

Igor has performed at every Olympic Games starting with Athens’2004 and he was among those who ensured Russian victory in running for the capital of Winter Games in 2014. Igor Butman runs international “AquaJazz” festival which is held annually in July in Sochi.

On October 28, 2011 Igor Butman was given a rank of People’s Artist of Russian Federation for outstanding services to Russian music by the decree of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.