Ondřej Pivec

Keyboardist, composer and producer Ondřej Pivec relocated to New York from Prague in 2008, having launched a successful career with his first band Organic Quartet, which he cofounded with Libor Šmoldas, Jakub Doležal and Tomáš Hobzek soon after they completed their studies at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague. He first went to New York to gather new experience and, together with Tomáš Hobzek and several local musicians, recorded the album Overseason. He went back the following year, this time to stay.  With his second album released in America, Green Card Album (2014), he celebrated getting a permanent residence permit, and in 2019 he received citizenship in the United States. In New York he very quickly became part of the local soul-jazz community and later founded his own band, Kennedy Administration, whose performances have been highly acclaimed in clubs and at festivals across the United states, Europe and Asia. He is also regular member of the band of Gregory Porter who received a Grammy award for his 2016 album Take Me to the Alley, on which Ondřej Pivec also collaborated. He has worked with many other outstanding musicians, including Wu-Tang Clan, Andra Day, Gregoire Maret, Joel Frahm, Jake Langley, Russel Carter, Paul Bollenback, Karel Růžička Jr. and Bill Campbell, and he continues to collaborate with Czech artists as a producer, performer and studio player (Vladimír Mišík, Monkey Business, Vojta Dyk, 7krat3, Roman Holý). Among his most recent projects that originated from the Czech scene are Greatest Hits 4000, in which he has drawn on his broad experience in jazz, funk, gospel, hip-hop and soul. For the albums Don´t Get Ideas (the debut album of Organic Quartet) and It´s About Time (Najponk, Gregory Hutchinson, Ondřej Pivec) he received the Anděl Award.