About the event

Mary Komasa (songwriting, lyrics, vocals, piano)

Mary has played instruments and sang since she was a child: at age 6, she enrolled in a music elementary school in Warsaw, studied organ in high school, while also training as an opera singer (which she planned to become). At the same time, she took lessons in harpsichord and studied cultural anthropology. Several years later, she quit all those things and moved to Paris. There, she became part of the hip-hop scene while continuing her singing lessons and an internship in the Parisian fashion house Rue du Mail. Her next stop was Berlin, where she still lives and works today. In Berlin, Mary began to study singing at the university level and met excellent musicians with whom she developed her own sound. Komasa now draws on Berlin's club, concert and art scenes and her influences include artists who sound is shaped by their emotions such as Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Jim Morisson, Michael Hutchence, Ewa Demarczyk, Etta James, Janis Joplin, but also Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Elvis Presley. She loves them all equally, because they helped her understand that singing is the only way to express herself to the world.

Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz (songwriting, lyrics, keyboard instruments)

Antoni was born in 1980, studied music from when he was a child, and holds a degree in composition from the Kraków Music Academy. He has written the scores for over films and plays, including this year's Oscar-nominated film "In Darkness." He has received the "European Film Music Trophy Young Talent Award," and the German Television Music Award as well as numerous other nominations for musical prizes in Poland and Germany. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 2007.

Daníel Böðvarsson (guitar)

Born in Reykjavík in 1989, Daníelbegan studying classical guitar but soon moved on to electric guitar. He has played an intense number of live shows throughout Europe in recent years with many Icelandic artists such as Helgi Jonsson, Hjalmar, Hjaltalin, and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Danish vocalist Tina Dico, and his own jazz quartet, Reginfirra. Reginfirra has received numerous awards and nominations including the Young Nordic Jazz Comets Award in 2010 in Oslo, and a nomination to the Icelandic Music Award (IMA) - while Daniel's other project, Moses Hightower, also received a nomination for the same award in the pop category. In 2011, he was officially lauded an IMA Shooting Star. Daníel, splits his life between Berlin and Reykjavík since 2012, where he is involved in numerous projects that range from pop music, free improvisation to theater.

Joonas Leppänen (drums)

A native of Finland, Joonas is part of a young generation of Finnish musicians who freely move among various musical styles. In addition to playing in Mary Komas's band, he expresses himself creatively as a composer and leader of the jazz group Big Blue, which recently released an album on Cam Jazz records to rave reviews. Joonas is currently working on a new recording project and will go in to the studio near the end of this year. He is also member of the Finnish group Vibraltar, which plays a mixture of soul, jazz and hip-hop. Joonas considers jazz his main musical environment, a fact that makes him all the more willing to be a member of the Mary Komasa project, which allows him to expose his musical passions and timeless inspirations flowing from pop music.

Ofer Wetzler (bass guitar)

Ofer was born in 1983 in Israel to a family of musicians. He began studying music at age 10 with the trombone and received numerous awards as a young trombonist. At age 16, he began to learn to play bass guitar, which became his main instrument. His broad musical horizons and original sound make Ofer a frequent guest in recording and life projects. Currently, in addition to playing with Mary Komasa's project, he plays with the Berliner Ensemble theater in the play "Lulu" with music by Lou Reed, directed by Bob Wilson. He is also a student at the Jazz Institute Berlin.

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