About

Marko Churnchetz (Slovenian spelling Črnčec) is one of Slovenia's most heralded contemporary musicians and renowned exports, based in New York City. On the international scene he is known as a formidable young multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and producer who easily works across genres and in particular jazz, classical and popular music.

Churnchetz was born May 15, 1986 in Maribor, Slovenia and by the age of age six his musical path began by studying
 classical music on accordion and then piano at the age of ten. A prodigious talent, by his teens he was a multiple award-winner in both national and international competitions, and he earned a classical piano degree in 2005 as well as jazz piano degree at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria in 2009.

Churnchetz has released six albums as a leader. His third highly critically acclaimed album Devotion (Whirlwind Recordings, 2014), featuring Mark Shim (saxophone), Chris Tordini (double bass) and Justin Brown (drums) was selected among 20 Best Jazz releases of 2014 by "All About Jazz"!

Churnchetz's album PLACE TO LIVE (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2019) features his outstanding jazz trio with Harish Raghavan on doublebass and Justin Brown on drums. On two tracks the trio is joined by vocalist Jonathan Hoard, who co-wrote the title song of the album. French "Jazz Magazine" called it "Revelation!"

Marko has performed or recorded with the following notable artists: Jonathan Kreisberg, Billy Hart, Eric Harland, Seamus Blake, Rez Abbasi, Joe Locke, Mike Moreno, Wayne Escoferry, Joe Sanders, Alex Sipiagin, John Ellis, Luis Bonilla, Mark Shim, Justin Brown, Marcus Gilmore, Suresh Talwalkar, Stefan Milenkovich, Sharat Shrivastava, and many others.

He has performed on major festivals and clubs around the world, like: Blue Note Jazz Club NYC, Jazz Standard NYC, Vienna Konzerthaus, Jazz Baltica, San Francisco Jazz Center, TIJC Jazz Conference Thailand, Havana Jazz Festival, Smalls Jazz Club NYC, Porgy and Bess Vienna, Reykjavik Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Sarajevo, Jazz Festival Belgrade, Jazz Festival Ljubljana, Salsa Festival Barcelona, Ohrid Music Festival, Nishville Jazz Festival, Rovinj Salsa Festival, Dubrovnik Music Festival, Stockholm A-Capella Festival, Sava Centar Belgrade, Gramercy Theater NYC, Sunside Sunset Paris, Blue Whale Los Angeles, and many others…