VITA
"It's nice to be able to surprise yourself while you're playing...."
Marcus Sukiennik is a true sound adventurer! As a pianist, composer and arranger, he roams the musical landscapes of the last centuries and checks out what our ears find so exciting today.
At home in Cologne from 1993 to 2024 and now in charming Nettersheim in the Eifel region, the artist mixes classical music and jazz with traditional folk songs and a splash of pop.
He conjures up classical melodies in a new guise and composes mainly for piano solo - sometimes also for entire jazz bands. He has been playing modern background music as a bar pianist in a wide variety of locations for over 25 years. As artistic director at the piano bar of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst in Cologne and at the Musical Dome, he gets people in the mood with his sheet music for the show Moulin Rouge.
Between kicking, jazz and classical music
Born in the Rhineland, he comes from a music-loving family. At the tender age of 8, he tapped his first keys and later founded a school band with his brother while developing his jazzy sound. But the young music lover had another passion: playing soccer. After some back and forth, the choice is made - and poof, music wins!
From 1987, Marcus Sukiennik studied jazz and classical piano in Hilversum in the Netherlands with the masters Karel Boehlee, Henk Elkerbout and Rob Madna. Between 1997 and 2011, he also devoted himself to composing and arranging - mentored by film composer and conductor Jurre Haanstra at the Conservatorium in Amsterdam and by jazz pianist and WDR big band director Bill Dobbins at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.
Getting to the core
Sukiennik's artistic journey was given a turbo boost in the early 90s when he came across the Cologne pianist and composer Eckart Wilkens. The two had a lively exchange that allowed Sukiennik to delve deep into the world of classical piano literature and variation works. This sparked his passion for exploring the essence of music-making, beyond stylistic boundaries and forms of expression. As a piano magician, Sukiennik juggles a colorful palette of styles, but his pieces of music all radiate simplicity, clarity and emotion.
Sukiennik's creative output to date includes 7 albums, a few singles and 4 music books, all of which have been released on his own label Linie 21. His masterpieces include the big band project A Night In Tunesia Suite (2000), the piano solo album Atme Seele, heile (2016) and Beste Tage, performed live at LOFT Cologne in 2017.
His compositions and arrangements have won him the VDM Award several times, and his releases have stormed the charts99. Marcus Sukiennik has taught at the University of Duisburg as a lecturer for combo and big band, taught music history at the VHS Cologne and has run his own piano school since 1993.
Selected projects
2010 to date: Pianist at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst Cologne, since 2015 artistic director
2019 until today: Participation in baby and children's concerts in collaboration with Anja Leu, Andantino Musikvermittlung
2022-2025: Pianist at the Musical Dome, greeting before the show Moulin Rouge
2022-2024: Pianist at the Sheraton Pelikan Hotel Hanover
2022 -2023: Pianist in the ensemble Classic Light Cologne
2021-2022: Participation as pianist of the Klezmer Concerts Cologne Academy Orchestra
2009-2017: Pianist at the Steigenberger Grandhotel Petersberg
2014-2016: Pianist at the WDR Funkhaus Cologne
2000: Participation as pianist and composer at the MusikTriennale Cologne
