Toms Rudzinskis

(23.10.1987 )

saxophone

Music is a teacher.

The gifted, accomplished and tranquil saxophonist and composer Toms Rudzinskis is one of the most innovative Latvian jazz musicians. After graduating from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, he returned to Riga but continues to travel across Europe to perform in jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals.

Rudzinskis has won awards in several jazz competitions: for best soloist at the Meer Jazz international big band competition, the Keep an Eye Jazz Award with the North by Northeast quartet, Grand Prix at the Burghausen Jazz Competition with the Matiss Cudars Quartet, and Grand Prix at the Dutch Jazz Competition with the Loran Witteveen Quintet. In 2012 he was selected as the jazz ambassador of the prestigious Bimhuis concert hall in Amsterdam.

In 2014 the Toms Rudzinskis Quartet released the album Abra. It was nominated for the “Zelta Mikrofons” Annual Latvian Music Recording Awards in two categories: best jazz album and best debut. In the autumn of 2017, Rudzinskis and Austrian trumpet player and composer Gerhard Ornig released Locomotion!, the first jazz LP in more than 20 years.