“When I was a child I dreamt about becoming an ice-hockey player, not a saxophonist. I tried to combine my love of sport with my passion for music, including playing the clarinet at ice-hockey arenas and even holding a hockey stick when it should have been my instrument! In the end I became a saxophonist, but recently the paths of sport and music have converged and I've been taking part in the “Stars on Ice“ show on TV. Sport is a part of every day life in Russia and I consider the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi to be the ultimate showcase of Russia’s winter sports tradition.“

Igor Butman is a world-famous saxophonist, composer and bandleader. As Russia's leading jazz player he has played for the presidents of two superpowers and founded the world-famous jazz club, Le Club, in Moscow.

Butman started playing the clarinet at the age of 11. In 1976, he entered the Mussorgsky College of Music, where during his second year he decided to drop the classical clarinet in favour of the jazz saxophone. Aside from being taught by the remarkable musician and teacher, Gennady Goldstein, he also took unofficial lessons from nightly broadcasts of jazz on Voice of America.

In 1983, Butman played in Oleg Lundstrem's big band and the following year, was invited by Nick Levinovsky to join the famous 'Allegro' jazz group, with whom he played for three years. After Butman emigrated to the US in 1987, he went on to major in Performance and Composition at Berkley College of Music in Massachusetts.

His solo career in the US went from strength-to-strength and has seen him appear on The Today Show, Good Morning America and numerous other international programmes. Butman has performed at almost every major jazz festival, including the JVC Jazz Festival in New York, the Boston Globe Jazz Festival in Boston, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho and the Festival Internationale de Jazz de Montreal in Canada.

In the 1990's, Butman returned to Russia and has become 'a jazz bridge between Moscow and New York' in the eyes of many, bringing numerous jazz superstars to Russia to perform. His marvellous coalescence of soul, sound and technique has even drawn praise from former US President, Bill Clinton, who described him as the "greatest living jazz saxophone player, who happens to be a Russian", at a state dinner hosted by Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow.

His distinctive sound and boyish exuberance have earned Butman standing ovations and numerous fans around the world. In 1998, he founded Le Club, Moscow's top jazz venue and the following year he formed his own orchestra: the Igor Butman Big Band.

Butman was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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