Ondrej Pivec was born in 1984 in Brno (south Moravia). His first musical studies were in classical piano, at the basic music school. He attended the school for seven years before moving to Prague in 1999. At that time, friend recommended that he should take part in the summer jazz workshop, which is organized by the Czech Jazz Society. It was here that he was introduced to jazz music and in that context, many great Czech and Polish musicians were his mentors. He was so amazed by this musical discovery, that he took part in two more jazz workshops and formed his first jazz quintet. It was called “Mantis” and they performed occasionally in Prague and around the Czech republic.
The first real engagement came in 2002. By that time Ondrej had joined the jazz trio of the prominent Czech jazz guitarist Roman Pokorný. He had also switched from piano to the Hammond organ and learned to play the bass with the left hand. Through working with this trio he slowly gained the experience of being a professional sideman. In 2003, after his graduation he also joined Roman's blues project - Blues Box Heroes and gradually became a more experienced professional player. Ondrej then started performing with a Polish-Cuban singer, Yvonne Sanchez, in her project called “Brazilian Groove”. In 2004 he played over 130 gigs with these three bands, performing not only in Prague and across the Czech Republic but also internationally. Engagements included Semper Oper, Bluenote - Dresden, a Romanian tour with Yvonne, a tour in Turkey with a band supporting Billy Cobham's Culture Mix, FIAP Jean Monnet Paris, Jazz Club St. Germain Paris, Kunstfabrik Schlott, Berlin and many more.
At this time Ondrej met an Italian organ virtuoso Alberto Marsico and whilst in London he also had the chance to meet legendary British organist Mike Carr. Both these distinguished players offered him some coaching. In 2005, Ondrej left Roman Pokorny’s two bands and he set off in his own direction. He started his own band called “ORGANIC quartet”, and most of the members are fellow students from the Jazz College, where he has studied since 2004.
Ondrej was awarded first place in the “soloist of the year” category, in the talent competition held within the 2005 Philips International Jazz Festival. The ORGANIC quartet was also elected “band of the year” at the same festival. Ondrej Pivec nowadays occasionally works with the renowned German guitar player - Christian Rover.
The debut album of the ORGANIC quartet was released in 2005, by the Czech-British label Cube-Metier. Both national and international critics hailed the album, which is entitled Don’t Get Ideas. The year after the recording, Pivec was elected “Organist of the Month” for October 2006 by the international archives for jazz organ.
