Asen Doykin has been part of the New York performing, music production, composing and academic scene for the past eighteen years. In demand, and well-known, Asen has played at some of the city's best known performance venues and jazz clubs such as: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Steinway Hall, The Blue Note, Birdland, The Kitano, Smalls Jazz Club, Joe's Pub.

He has released two albums as a leader and has composed numerous musical pieces for film, television and theater. His music has been featured at the Cannes Film Festival, HBO, BBC, NPR, Queens Public Television and Bulgarian National TV an Radio Channels.

Asen has established himself as a prominent teacher leading the piano facility at the Verona Music School and his own music studio. He has taught piano master classes as a visiting teacher at Berklee College of Music in Boston, The Royal Stockholm Conservatory in Sweden, Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey and Plovdiv Music Institute in Bulgaria. His pupils have graduated from his piano program and have been accepted to some of the most prestigious academic institutions such as Harvard University, Columbia University, Berklee College of Music and The Julliard School.

Asen has recorded and performed with some of the most eminent contemporary musicians on the New York jazz , pop and world scene. He has worked with Pino Paladino, Joe Locke, Bennie Maupin, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Francisco Mela, Eli Degibri, Myron Walden, Rodney Green, Kendrick Scott, Vincent Ector, Uri Gurvich, Peter Slavov, Theodosii Spassov, among many others.

Born in Pazardjik, Bulgaria in 1975, to the family of a classical musician, Asen Doykin started playing piano at the age of five. While studying classical music at the Music School “Dobrin Petkov" in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Asen attempts composition and improvisation and forms his own trio with which He starts to perform at music festivals in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Germany. Doykin also started to work with many Bulgarian musicians with whom he recorded original compositions and arrangements for different projects and for the Bulgarian National Radio and TV. On the 13th edition of the Plovdiv Youth Jazz Festival, Asen was awarded Best Young Jazz Performer. In 1993 Asen also received First Prize for classical composition at the prestigious international competition “Svetoslav Obretenov".

After graduating from the Music School of Plovdiv in 1995, Asen received a scholarship to attend the world famous Berklee College of Music in Boston. While at Berklee, he won the coveted Jazz Performance of the Year award, and the Jesse Stone Scholarship. He continued to further develop his personal musical style and to diversify his repertoire with Jazz, 20th Century Classical Music and Bulgarian Folk.

In 1999 after graduating from Berklee College, Asen moved to New York City. Here He started active performance career with various bands and musicians from the jazz, pop, contemporary chamber and world music scene.

Since residing in New York, He has toured extensively the United States and Europe with his own band and as a sideman with different music formations.

ENTRANCE FEES

One of the reasons that makes the zig zag jazz club so unique is that it is the first and only jazz club in the world that manages to finance world class events through a donation/crowd funding concept. How do we do it? Its quite simple… during the break of the concert we make an announcement regarding the collection for the evening. For most concerts (excluding the jam session) we inform our customers that a donation of around 15€ per person will allow us to fairly compensate the musicians. Some people give more and some give less… and that´s ok… we ´ve already successfully promoted hundreds of concerts like this!!!