Hungarian-Polish cultural relations have for long embellished the historical friendship of the two nations. The newest chapter in this story will be a project which connects Chopin and Bartók, as their works provide the starting point to build an imaginary bridge across the ages between them by way of adapting their music and improvising on them. All participating jazz musicians look up to the classic composers as idols and for inspiration.

Polish pianist Kuba Stankiewicz, a Berklee graduate earned a lot of success in the United States and has played with the best Polish musicians from Namysłowski to Anna-Maria Jopek. He confesses to have always been a romantic soul, no wonder one of his albums, recorded in Los Angeles with Peter Erskine, elaborates Victor Young standards. He also published a record devoted to a song cycle of Chopin with singer Inga Lendowska. His first album with by Kornél Fekete-Kovács was released six years ago, and he also contributed to the global invitational composition cycle of MAO, called Art of Virus, which was performed in Hungary live two years ago. Their collaboration this time is again generously supported by the Felczak Foundation.

The trumpet-player, leader of the Modern Art Orchestra, Kornél Fekete Kovács and the Polish pianist plan to rely on their earlier adaptations of the great national composers, but the program in the Opus Jazz Club will be a completely new one. Some Chopin songs (Op. 47) will be presented in instrumental versions, and melodies of Bartók from the Microcosmos cycle and his violin duets will also be newly arranged. The third player of the quintet, also handing out scores of his own Bartók-adaptations, will be arranger of MAO and the leader of its sax section, Kristóf Bacsó. The Quintet will be rounded up from the MAO rhythm section, namely by dynamic drummer László Csizi and by the master bass player József Barcza-Horváth.