Steve Dobrogosz

Steve Dobrogosz is an American pianist and composer based in Sweden whose career spans several decades and ranges in style from classical to jazz and pop. He was particularly successful in collaboration with vocalists Radka Toneff during the early '80s, Berit Andersson during the late '80s and early '90s, and Anna Christoffersson during the mid- to late 2000s. Born on January 26, 1956, in Bellefonte, PA, Dobrogosz grew up in Raleigh, NC, and later studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. In 1978 he moved to Stockholm, Sweden, and began a fruitful musical career there amid the city's vibrant jazz scene. Dobrogosz made his solo album debut in 1980 with Songs on the Caprice label. He later collaborated with Norwegian jazz legend Radka Toneff on the album Fairy Tales (1982), a classic pairing of vocals and piano that was released around the time of the vocalist's tragic death. A couple years later he began a long-running collaboration with Swedish vocalist Berit Andersson that spanned the years 1984 to 1992 and resulted in three full-length albums, The Final Touch (1989), Jade (1990), and Skin Balloon (1993), plus the double-disc compilation Best of Steve Dobrogosz & Berit Andersson (1999). During the 1990s he also released the albums Pianopieces (1992), a collaboration with percussionist Petur Östlund; Duckwalk (1996), with the Steve Dobrogosz Quartet; Mass (1997), with St. Jacob's Chamber Choir; and Ebony Moon (1998), a solo piano collection. After the turn of the century Dobrogosz was particularly successful in collaboration with Swedish vocalist Anna Christoffersson. Their first album, It's Always You (2006), was a Top 20 hit on the Swedish albums chart while their second, Rivertime (2008), reached the Top Ten. Other recordings by Dobrogosz released during the 2000s include Feathers (2000), a collaboration with vocalist Jeanette Lindström; Requiem/Te Deum (2004), with St. Jacob's Chamber Choir; Chambers (2007), a solo piano collection; and Poems (2009), a six-track EP with vocalist Annika Skoglund. ~ Jason Birchmeier