Pianist
Composer
Arranger
About me
Mikołaj Gąsiewski – Polish music arranger, pianist, and composer. Graduate of the A. Rubinstein 1st and 2nd Level Music Schools Group in Bydgoszcz in the piano class. Mikołaj Gąsiewski completed the undergraduate degree programme in Jazz Piano with Piotr Wrombel, as well as in Composition with Jazz Arranging with Wojciech Olszewski, Ph.D., simultaneously attending classes taught by Krzesimir Dębski at I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. He graduated cum laude. He also received Rector’s Scholarship for the best students.
While still at school (2009-2013), he played the piano in the Junior Jazz Big Band’75 in the Palace of Youth, Bydgoszcz. He also co-founded the Bydgoszcz-based band Archandia, where he co-created and performed original music.
In his college years, he played in Natalia Moskal’s Warsaw-based electronic pop ensemble, which he performed with at such events as “Two Riversides” Festival in Kazimierz Dolny, “Behind the Trees” Festival in Mysłowice.
In December 2016 he also went on a winter tour around Italy with the band.
In 2018 he studied at Conservatorium Maastricht as an Erasmus scholarship holder. In this period, he took part as a pianist in a tour of a Dutch big band, Nederlanden Studenten Jazz Orkest, and attended an orchestra workshop with Metropole Orkest in Hilversum, conducted by Shirma Rouse.
His first position as a music arranger was with the Polish Film Music Orchestra, where he worked as a keyboard player and music director. During this collaboration, he wrote music arrangements for concerts of such artists as Beata Kozidrak and Kayah. He also created the orchestra arrangement to Szymon Grzybacz’s piece “Malinowy”. Its orchestral version was recorded in the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio in Warsaw.
Furthermore, since 2014 he has been part of a duet with Dawid Kartaszewicz, an actor associated with the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, where he plays the piano. Together with Dawid, he has been mainly promoting the music by Zbigniew Wodecki, the Elderly Gentlemen’s Cabaret (original: Kabaret Starszych Panów), and many other Polish artists.
He has also cooperated with the “Polski” Theatre in Bydgoszcz, the “Baj Pomorski” Theatre in Toruń, the salon orchestra of the Polish Radio of Pomerania and Kuyavia “Odeon”, the Poznań-based orchestra “CoOperate”, Kapitan Nemo, Roksana Węgiel, the Adam Sztaba Orchestra, Katarzyna Moś, Marcin Sójka, Sound’n’Grace, Beata Kozidrak, Łukasz Zagrobelny, or TreVoci.
He is the author of string orchestra arrangements for the 40th-anniversary tour of Bajm and co-author of backing tracks for two Polish editions of the TV show “All Together Now” – “Śpiewajmy Razem”, produced by Endemol Shine Polska, with Łukasz Sztaba as music director. He also co-created orchestra arrangements for Sanah’s tours “Sanah’s Banquet” and “Feast of Feasts”.
Currently employed at the F. Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, he also conducts his own Mikołaj Gąsiewski Orchestra, with which in March 2020 he played its first concert in Olsztyn as part of “The Gentleman” tour. He has been involved in the production of the Polish version of the TV show “Name That Tune” (original: “Jaka to melodia?”) on TVP1, as well as other TV shows available on TVP1 and TVP2 (“Eurovision”, “President’s Carols” – musical arrangements and backing tracks, “TVP2 Summer Tour”, “Dream New Year’s Eve”, etc.). He is musical director in Monika Lewczuk’s band, as well as composes his own original music for various instrumental ensembles.
He also cooperates with the “ProCulture” agency, where he was involved in creating musical arrangements for concerts with Andrzej Piaseczny and for the “Show By Night” tour, featuring singing actors.