Makowicz, Adam, 1940-

Adam Makowicz was born Adam Matyszkowicz in Hnojník, in the present-day Czech Republic. He was raised in Poland after the Second World War, and studied piano at the Academy of Music in Kraków (Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie). The broadcasts of Willis Conover's Music USA jazz program on the Voice of America turned Makowicz's attention from classical piano to jazz, which he pursued in spite of numerous forms of pressure under the communist regime. Makowicz arrived in the United States in 1977 for a ten-week tour produced by John Hammond, and took up residence in New York. During martial law in Poland in the early 1980s, he was banned from the country due to his support for the Solidarity Movement, and he appeared in the all-star production "Let Poland Be Poland." He has released over two dozen albums, and performed with numerous jazz artists from Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, and George Shearing to Phil Woods, Dave Holland, and Charlie Haden. Makowicz relocated to Toronto aftef the year 2000, and in 2009 received the Golden Medal "Gloria Artis" from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.