Gast Waltzing

Born in the Grand Duche of Luxembourg in 1956, Gast Waltzing's defining passion has always been music. At the age of 7 he began his studies at the Conservatoire of Luxembourg, continued his classical training at the Conservatoire Royal de Brussels and completed his studies at the Conservatoire National Superior de Paris. "I am always a musician" he states, "It's not like I wake up and decide where to schedule music in. It is always present." He was named Professor of Trumpet at the Conservatoire of Luxembourg in 1982, and in 1986 founded the Jazz Department of which he remains the head.

He has released tens of albums ranging from Classical to Jazz to Dance, notably his early jazz groups, "Atmosphere" and "Lifes Circle: and more recently his jazz group "Largo", which is signed to Warner Bros. London, who will release his second "Largo" album titled "Long Journey" for this label in the summer of 2005. "I am so tired of all the backward looking that goes on in Jazz right now. The original innovators were just that... innovators, and they took influenced from everything that was around them, they didn't try to sound exactly like anyone else. Jazz is a living music, and it doesn't, belong in the past. It needs to move on. Hip-Hip, DJ culture, dance music, it all plays a part in my composing" And he began composing at 15, with the Luxembourg Jazz Five, and has always composed original music for his many formations, (hundreds of pieces!) expanding into the composition and production of music for Film and Television in 1989, with the original score for "A WOP BOP A LOP BOP" for which he was nominated for Best European Film Composer. Since that time he has composed and produced over 150 original scores for Film and TV. Many of his film music scores were written for Symphony Orchestra and he has conducted and recorded them with the Orchestra Philharmonic du Luxembourg. He has also conducted several very special public productions with Orchestra Philharmonic de Luxembourg, such as a coronation celebration concert for Luxembourg's Grand Duc in 2000, with Patricia Kaas and the opening of the Tour de France in 2002 with the Scorpions. This year (2005) Gast has composed for and will conduct the first concert of his newly founded "Orchestra National du Jazz, Luxembourg" ONJL for short, with guest star George Duke, for the opening of the newly built Salle Grand Duchess Charlotte. He also composed, conducted and produced the fireworks music for Luxembourg's National Day celebration and will conduct the large outdoor concert of the Orchestra Philharmonic du Luxembourg featuring renown French jazz violinist Didier Lockwood. In 2004 Waltzing founded WPR (Waltzing-Parke Records) the mother company of his "WPR Jazz" label. To date Gast has recorded and produced 4 new jazz artists on this label, with 2 more to be released in fall of 2005. WPR Jazz is distributed throughout Europe.