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Pianist Olga Reznichenko Receives the 2026 SWR Jazzpreis in Ludwigshafen This Saturday
The 46th SWR Jazzpreis, Germany's oldest jazz award, will be presented to pianist Olga Reznichenko on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the BASF Gesellschaftshaus in Ludwigshafen as part of the Enjoy Jazz festival, followed by a concert with her new project, Olga's Magic Square.
Pianist Olga Reznichenko will be presented with the 2026 SWR Jazzpreis on Saturday, Oct. 31, in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The award, given jointly by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and public broadcaster Südwestrundfunk (SWR), is the oldest jazz prize in Germany and is being awarded for the 46th time, according to SWR. It carries 15,000 euros.
The ceremony takes place at 7 p.m. local time at the BASF Gesellschaftshaus as part of the Enjoy Jazz festival. SWR says the evening also includes a concert by Reznichenko with her new project, Olga's Magic Square.
The broadcaster announced Reznichenko as this year's winner in April. "Movement! That seems to be one of Olga Reznichenko's credos," the jury wrote in its citation, as quoted by SWR. The jury said the pianist, "extremely active and extremely versatile," is decisively shaping the sound of current jazz from Germany.
Her longest-running group is the trio O.R.T., with Lorenz Heigenhuber and Maximilian Stadtfeld. The jury also pointed to her work in the quartet Crutches, Beatdenker's Polyplay, Jelena Kuljić's Fundamental Interactions, the ensemble Pauline Réage, the White-Reznichenko Quintet and the band Space Schädel. Stylistically, it said, she moves nimbly "from modern to punk jazz," guided by jazz's commitment to openness. The citation praised her playing on piano, keyboard and keytar, her handling of highly complex rhythms and her imagination for sound, calling her "an unconventional and at the same time tradition-conscious artist."
According to SWR, Reznichenko was born in 1989 in Taganrog, Russia, on the Sea of Azov. After classical piano training, she studied jazz piano first in Rostov and then in Leipzig with Richie Beirach and Michael Wollny.
The SWR Jazzpreis was initiated by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who was also the first artistic director of the Berliner Jazztage, today's Jazzfest Berlin. This year's jury consisted of Julia Neupert and Konrad Bott for SWR, Etienne Emard and Bettina Bohle for Rhineland-Palatinate, Keisuke Matsuno for the Deutsche Jazzunion, and independent music experts Annika Sautter and Ulrich Stock.