“We exist despite the sober formality of great concert halls, despite the boredom of classical musicians’ life, despite fanatic lovers of classical music, despite fans of rock, rap or pop who are afraid of classical music. We treat our Muse with a humorous irony and we’re sure, she will have nothing against it!” – MozART group
All four gentlemen of the MozART group are well educated instrumentalists who graduated from prestigious Academies of Music in Warsaw and Łódz, but they decided to play classical music in a humorous way. Filip Jaślar, Michał Sikorski, Paweł Kowaluk, Bolesław Błaszczyk and former cellist and founding member Artur Renion created a worldwide unique musical cabaret, where the music, not the words are the source of joy and laugh.
Take a classical composition as canvas, analyze its structure and theme, surround it with musical associations, brilliant, outstanding ideas and while listening to the final product the listener is constantly surprised, amazed, laughing and moved to tears.
The musicians of the MozART group have been playing together since 1995. At the beginning, they presented short musical jokes on Canal Plus Television and gave their first debut in 1997 at the PAKA competition of young Polish cabarets in Krakow. In the same year, they presented their first cabaret program entitled “Mozart’s still alive” and since then, they have given concerts in all of Europe, Canada, the U.S.A and Asia. The quartet also performances with colleagues around the world including shows with the mime Irek Krosny or the multitalent Bobby McFerrin.
The MozART group is a frequent TV guest including international galas and concerts. The quartet received prestigious prizes like the Grand Prix of the XVIII Festival of Satire and Comedy in Lidzbark; “Pingwin z brazu” (the Bronze Penguin) – the prize given by the cabaret community of Zielona Gora, an informal capitol of Polish cabaret and two GOLDEN TROUGHS at the RYJEK Festival in Rybnik/Poland. In July 2010 the MozART group was awarded a special prize from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland for outstanding achievements and 15 years on stage. The 31st European Humor Festival GAGY in Slovakia awarded the MozART group with the 2011 GRAND PRIX. In March 2013 the MozART group was awarded all three main prizes at the 10th “Festival des Artes Burlesques” in St.Etienne/France: the Grand Prix of the Jury, the Audience Award and the Press Award.
The first show of the group, in which they took Antonio Vivaldi as their patron, was entitled “The Four Seasons à la MozART group”. Similar subtitle has their CD “Creatures” where each of the seasons begins the same way as Vivaldi’s compositions. Later on, however, it runs freely in the direction of various world songs about spring, summer, autumn and winter. This show provides the listener with over 70 minutes of a sophisticated, perfectly arranged, sublime fun!
In 2008 & 2009 two DVDs of the MozART group were released with great success and got a huge attention in Poland and abroad. The “Best of MozART group” DVD was released in February 2010. Two further DVDs followed in 2011 and 2012.
2011 marked a very important artistic year for the quartet. Within seven months The MozART group visited 24 countries, 4 continents, performing more than 150 public and exclusive shows. The quartet made its debuts in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Latvia, Turkey, Mexico, Costa Rica, U.S.A., Estonia, Slovakia, Portugal and France.
In October 2012, the MozART group performed for the first time in Moscow and performed again at the Svetlanov Hall in December 2013. In 2013 the quartet visited China for the first time performing with great succes at the sould out NCPA in Beijing, the SHOAC in Shanghai and six other venues and cities. 2013 ended successfully with eight shows in Germany at the most important venues of the country like the Musikhalle Hamburg, Gasteig Munich, Tonhalle Düsseldorf.
In 2013 and 2014 the tour list contained shows in Germany, France, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Austria, South Korea, Brazil, Turkey, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Kazachstan, China, Canada and the U.S.A..
In 2015 the MozART group celebrated its 20th anniversary with a gala show at the Teatr Polski in Warsaw together with friends and colleagues from Poland and Switzerland. This evening will remain for a long time in our memories. Twenty years on stage is a good reason to show to the audience all the funny and interesting stories which happened during this time! This is why the MozART group will be presenting “MozART travels!” in the second half of 2016 – a new show, a funny point of view on unexpected situations, regional chracteristics, on their and your world.
Just to name a few activities in 2016: the quartet visited Israel for the first time, including shows in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. A four weeks series of shows at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris took place in April, before the artists went to the La Jolla Music Festival in San Diego / California and other cities in the U.S.A.. In November the quartet visited Asia for the sixth time includig Singapore and China.
In 2017 the quartet visited again over 20 countries including France, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Germany. For the first time in history, Just For Laughs – the worlds biggest and most important comedy festival hosted the quartet with a total of twenty shows in Montreal / Canada. The the new DVD “Mozart comes to town” has been released in December 2017.
In 2018 the MozART group toured North America, Asia and Europe. From October 2018 until January 2019 the quartet performed a total of 65 concerts at the Bobino Theatre in the heart of Paris. Over 32.000 people visited the shows. 2019 was fully packed with concert tours in Europe, Mexico, the U.S.A., Canada and Asia.
In 2020 the MozART group turned 25.
Due to an accident that the world had to deal with, the quartet, like many other artists, had to face a kind of a creative break. The fruits of this period are diverse and absolutely positive. Among other things, a new show for France called “Globetrotters” was created. The quartet performed it twenty times in November and December 2021 at the Bobino Theater in Paris. On December 11, 2021, the MozART group performed in Paris for the 150th time within six years. Chopin would have been jealous…
In 2022 the MozART group will be visiting Northern Ireland for the first time as well as Israel, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium Romania and many other European countries. After nine years the quartet will be visiting Costa Rica for the third time.
France, Poland, Switzerland, the U.S.A., Taiwan, Singapore, Romania, Luxemburg, Germany, Portugal and more countries are on the tour list in 2023. 2024 the quartet will be touring Europe, Israel, the U.S., Taiwan and for the fist time – Japan. See you there!
Biography from www.mozartgroup.net
