Magdalena Ziarkowska-Kołacka is an assistant in the violin class at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław (Doctor of Musical Arts as of 2020) and deputy concertmaster of the Leopoldinum National Forum of Music Orchestra. In 2016-2019 she held the position of concertmaster of the Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra. She began her violin studies at the Music School Complex in Włocławek, after which she continued her studies at the General Secondary Music School in Łódź under the guidance of Professor Tomasz Bartosiak. In 2017, she graduated with honours from the I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in the violin class of Prof. Jarosław Żołnierczyk. Between 2011 and 2016, she was a member of the Young Polish Philharmonic orchestra led by Adam Klocek, with which she performed in the most important concert halls of the country and took part in the MISA Festival in Shanghai. From 2013 to 2016, she was concertmaster of the Sinfonietta Youth Orchestra of the Lodz Region.
As a soloist and chamber musician she has taken part in many festivals including: Warsaw Autumn and Crazy Days of Music in Warsaw, Colours of Poland at the Lodz Philharmonic, the Bronislaw Huberman Violin Festival at the Częstochowa Philharmonic, Wratislavia Cantans, the Summer Academy of Music in Warsaw, and the Festival of Music. Bronisław Huberman Festival at the Częstochowa Philharmonic, Wratislavia Cantans, the Summer Academy of Music in Lusławice, the Masters of Polish Viola Festival at the Zielona Góra Philharmonic, the Southern Wielkopolska Music Festival in Kalisz, the All Sides of the World International Festival in Puławy, Poznań Spring, the Witold Lutosławski Festival Chain XII in Radziejowice. In July 2018, she undertook a prestigious concert tour as part of the Baltic Neopolis Virtuosi programme, performing 20th-century chamber music compositions in Poland and Estonia with concertmasters and leaders of leading European orchestras. She has also collaborated with pianist Barbara Karaśkiewicz, with whom she has toured extensively throughout Europe.
As a soloist, she performs with Polish symphony and chamber orchestras, including the NFM Orchestra Leopoldinum, the Zielonogórska Philharmonic Orchestra and the Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra, collaborating with such conductors as: Adam Klocek, Rafał Jacek Delekta, Grzegorz Wierus, Czesław Grabowski. She is also a guest lecturer at the Orchestra Academy of the National Forum of Music. Magdalena Ziarkowska-Kołacka is a laureate of 1st place in the solo category and 2nd place in the chamber ensemble category at the International Musica insieme Competition in Venice, 2nd place in the Tadeusz Wroński Youth Solo Violin Competition and a distinction in the 10th J. Zarębski International Music Competition. Currently she is promoting the figure of Bronisław Huberman, about whom she wrote her doctoral thesis entitled Bronisław Huberman - an analysis of the aesthetics of the great violin virtuoso's playing on the basis of his recordings, studies and transcriptions. The works described in the thesis were recorded on the album Bronisław Huberman in tribute to the violingenius, published by the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław together with the Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra. In October 2020, the Divine Art label released 20th Century Polish Music, a CD recorded with Barbara Karaśkiewicz and Sergey Rysanov (Huberman Duo and Huberman Piano Trio), featuring works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Karol Szymanowski and Andrzej Panufnik. The disc was acclaimed by many critics, both in Poland and abroad, as evidenced by its nomination for the prestigious Fryderyk Award in two categories.
Magdalena Ziarkowska-Kołacka has the honour of playing an Italian violin constructed by Riccardo Antoniazzi and once owned by Bronisław Huberman himself.
Violinist, soloist, chamber musician, and above all - musician.
She studied in the class of prof. Szymon Krzeszowiec at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where she currently works as an academic lecturer, as well as at MDW University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the class of Prof. Eszter Haffner. She also honed her artistic skills under the guidance of such outstanding personalities as Pierre Amoyal, Gidon Kremer, Maria Szwajger-Kułakowska, Pinchas Zukerman, Bomsori Kim czy Bartłomiej Nizioł.
She has been recognized at many prestigious music competitions. She is the winner of, among others, the first prize at the 13th International Young Paganini Violin Competition, the first prize at the 10th National Competition for Young Violinists in honor of Michał Spisak, a finalist of the 1st International Karol Szymanowski Competition, and a participant of the 16th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition. In 2022, she was nominated for the prestigious "Koryfeusze Muzyki Polskiej" award in the Discovery of the Year category.
As a soloist she has performed with several significant orchestras such as Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra NOSPR in Katowice, AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, Staatstheater Symphony Orchestra in Cottbus, Silesian Opera Orchestra and The Silesian, Lower Silesian, Subcarpathian, Sudeten, Poznań and Polish Wieniawski Philharmonic.
Constantly looking for opportunities to grow as an artist, she successfully cuts across the worlds of contemporary music and historical performance, the fruit of which is being the first violinist of the Equilibrium String Quartet and member of the Metropolis Piano Quartet.
In 2022 she released two new albums - solo debut „SULAMITA” released by DUX Recording Producers, very enthusiastically received by the music critic and audience and the recording of Władysław Żeleński’s chamber music with Equilibrium String Quartet, registered on period instruments (released by All’Improvviso).
In October 2023, premiere of the album with the manuscript version of Józef Elsner's String Quartets op. 8 from 1799, performed by Equilibrium String Quartet (pub. All'Improvviso) took place, and in January 2024, the ensemble released their latest album "Fantasias" (pub. All'Improvviso), featuring compositions by Karol Kurpiński, Franciszek Lessel, and Zygmunt Noskowski.
Zapraszamy go obejrzenia nowych filmów i reportaży o naszym festiwalu! Podczas każdej edycji rejestrujemy koncerty i wypowiedzi muzyków, aby mogli Państwo cieszyć się tymi wspomnieniami przez cały rok!
He was born in Poznan. He began his musical education at the age of seven by playing the cello. He completed this instrument with a diploma from the Karol Szymanowski Secondary Music School No. 4 in Warsaw. In 2004 he began studies at the Faculty of Vocal and Acting at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Lodz. He completed them in 2009 with a diploma with distinction. In the same year, he began postgraduate studies in opera singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and then continued his singing studies at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York in the Artist Diploma of Opera Singing program in Edith Wiens' singing class.
He is the winner and laureate of many international vocal competitions - opera, including: the Veronica Dunne International Vocal Competition in Dublin in (2011), the Marcella Sembrich-Kochanska International Competition in New York (2014) and song, including: Ada Sari International Festival and Competition of Vocal Art in Nowy Sącz (2009).
He made his debut with the role of Schaunard in La Bohème at Teatro Filharmonico/Arena di Verona in Italy (2009). He has given song recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York (2012) and Wigmore Hall in London (2012). He sings in many opera theaters in Poland and abroad. In addition to classical opera parts (Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi), the artist performs parts in operas by contemporary composers with great success, including: Korine Fujiwara (The Flood) or Pawel Mykietyn (The Magic Mountain).
In addition to singing, Szymon Komasa loves cinema and acrobatics.
Achkar has performed in halls such as the Mannheim Rosengarten, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, Semperoper Dresden, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Beethovenhalle Bonn, NCPA Beijing, Shanghai City Theater and His Majesty's Theater Perth. After numerous national and international awards, her success at the German Music Competition, combined with multiple participations in the Selection of Young Concert Artists, marked the beginning of her active concert activity. As a soloist and accomplished chamber musician, she has been invited to festivals in Europe, the US, Canada and Asia, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Bachfest Leipzig, Schwetzinger Festival, Thy Chamber Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Val Tidone Music Festival, Festival de Música de Cámara León and Nacyphonies. The Steinway Artist was supported by a variety of foundations, such as the German Music Council, the German Music Life Foundation, the Rhein-Neckar Foundation, the Pitzer Foundation, PE funding, the Rotary Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. In 2017, she received the soloist prize from the Mannheim Mozart Society. In the same year, she founded the SOTA Piano Trio with Jonathan Weigle and Julius Bekesch. Sonia Achkar studied with Rudolf Meister in Mannheim and at the Jacobs School of Music (Bloomington, USA) with the legendary pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio Menahem Pressler. She received important artistic impulses from Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Paul Badura-Skoda, Janina Fialkowska, Andrzej Jasiński, Alain Planès and Joseph Kalichstein. After teaching at the Jacobs School of Music, at the Mannheim University of Music, and at the HmT Leipzig from 2014 to 2020, she has been leading a piano studio at the HMDK Stuttgart since 2015. She also gives master classes all over the world and is a sought-after jury member at international competitions
Maximilian Ehrhardt is part of the new generation of performers of the historical harp renowned for his blend of virtuosity, scholarly inquiry, and innovative concert programming.
In 2024 he performed with Concerto Copenhagen Handel’s Saul at the Royal opera in Copenhagen, played four concerts in Bolivia during the Festival Misiones de Chiquitos and will tour internationally with Christina Pluhar’s L’Arpeggiata. At the same time he is realising his own projects: He will publish a CD of new compositions especially made for him together with seventeenth-century works, which will be published on Carpe Diem Records (Outhere). He will also tour with his ensemble Société Lunaire and premiere his music theatre project DODO in Berlin.
Maximilian studied modern harp with Erika Waardenburg at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and historical harps with Mara Galassi at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica di Milano, graduating with distinction. Currently he is a Ph.D. candidate at the docARTES programme in Gent / KU Leuven where he focuses on the performance practice of the harp concerto in the 18th century.
He performed amongst others with Concerto Copenhagen, L’Arpeggiata, Collegium 1704, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Concerto Köln, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the Wroclaw Baroque Ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques and the Choeur de Chambre de Namur. He worked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Christina Pluhar, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Konrad Junghänel, Lorenzo Ghielmi and Leonardo García Alarcón. Performances led him, amongst others, to the early music festivals in Berlin, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Utrecht, Trondheim, Innsbruck, Ambronay, Namur as well as the Festival della Valle d’Itria, Wratislavia Cantans and the MITO SettembreMusica Festival in Milan.
Maximilian has recorded many CDs and was nominated for his duo CD Viola Appassionata (2017) for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the International Classical Music Award. He has performed live on Radio Rai3, Radio Klara (Belgium), the classical music stations of Hungary, Poland and Denmark, Concertzender Nederland, Bayerischer Rundfunk and France Musique. His first solo recording with Welsh music from the 18th century in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk Kultur was released in 2020 on Carpe Diem Records. In 2023 he published a CD with world premiere recordings of Belgian quartets for harp and strings from the eighteenth century with his own ensemble Société Lunaire on the Belgian label Ramée in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
He is the artistic director of the Tage Alter Musik am Bodensee, a festival for early music in the Lake of Constance region, which he founded in 2016. He is a regular contributor for the national German radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
The Polish Cello Quartet was established in 2011 on the initiative of Tomasz Daroch, Wojciech Fudala, Krzysztof Karpeta, and Adam Krzeszowiec – four outstanding Polish cellists. The artists decided to establish this unique chamber ensemble to show the original sound of the cello quartet to a wider audience.
PCQ musicians had the honour of learning from leading cellist-teachers in Poland (Paweł Głombik, Stanisław Firlej) and internationally (Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Michael Flaksman, Jelena Očić, Julius Berger, Jeroen Reuling). They have gained their experience as artists in renowned cultural centres in Europe, including in Cologne, Mannheim, Augsburg, and Brussels. Each of them has won numerous awards in cello and chamber music competitions. All members of the quartet conduct intensive teaching activities and are lecturers at the music academies in Katowice, Wrocław, and Łódź. In addition, they are leaders of the cello sections of four leading Polish orchestras: the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra.
PCQ regularly plays during chamber music series in the major concert halls in Poland and Europe, including the new seat of the NOSPR, Warsaw Philharmonic, National Forum of Music, and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The ensemble is also a frequent guest at many international music festivals, such as Wratislavia Cantans, Vilnius Festival, I Suoni delle Dolomiti, International Chamber Music Festival Schiermonnikoog, Emanations Festival, Asiagofestival, Q’arto Mondi, Jazztopad, Musica Polonica Nova, and Musica Electronica Nova. In the 2021–2022 season, the Polish Cello Quartet celebrated its 10th anniversary. As part of the anniversary celebrations, PCQ performed at several prestigious events, including Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Festival Internacional Cervantino, and KaposFest.
PCQ has collaborated with numerous renowned classical and jazz musicians, including Gary Hoffman, Julius Berger, Giovanni Sollima, Mario Brunello, Jadwiga Rappé, Tomasz Strahl, Dominik Połoński, Tony Malaby, Joëlle Léandre, Nat Wooley, and Wojciech Myrczek.
PCQ’s repertoire includes mainly works originally composed for cello quartet. It is constantly expanded to include contemporary compositions by Polish and international composers, among others Artur Zagajewski, Piotr Moss, Mikołaj Piotr Górecki, and Annelies Van Parys. Most of these works are premiered by the Polish Cello Quartet. The artists prefer a democratic model of collaboration in concert. Within the line-up, they regularly swap individual parts – the nature of the cello quartet allows for this. Thanks to taking turns playing different parts, the ensemble can boast a rich palette of sounds and diversity of interpretations.
The members of the quartet are the initiators and organisers of the International Cello Academy in Nysa. ICA brings together famous professors from abroad and a large group of young students of the cello, while actively promoting chamber works written for cello ensembles. The fruit of this initiative is the regularly performing Cello Academy Orchestra – ICA Orchestra.
In 2017, PCQ’s debut album Discoveries was released. A year later, at the invitation of the Silesian Quartet and the Chandos label, the ensemble recorded Grażyna Bacewicz’s Cello Quartet. This album received the Fryderyk 2019 award for the Most Outstanding Recording of Polish Music. In 2019, together with Iza Połońska and Leszek Kołodziejski, the quartet recorded an album with songs by Jerzy Wasowski and Jeremi Przybora. November 2023 saw the release of the Polish Cello Quartet's latest album, Chopin Project.
Since 2014, the Polish Cello Quartet has been a resident ensemble of the National Forum of Music.
Roberto Trainini was born into a non-musical family, in a deep south Italian town, Bari ,where culture and music were regarded mostly as a “waste of time” and football as “culture”.
He began his cello studies by chance at the age of 10 when his father’s uncle Saverio Lojacono (that was for 30 years principal and co-prinicpal cellist in Buenos Aires at Teatro Colon, Montevideo and Lima) returned from South America and asked if Roberto would like to try to play: since then, cello never left his side anymore.
Young Roberto was trained by Vincenzo Caminiti and Pietro Bruno in Bari and won all first prizes in the two major national cello competitions for students in Italy, but it was only at the age of 19 that the great Radu Aldulescu heard his playing and took him into his class to Switzerland to the International Menuhin Music Academy on a full scholarship. There he had the possibility of studying chamber music as well , with Lord Yehudi Menuhin and Walter Levin.
Roberto went on to study cello and chamber music with Michel Strauss, Steven Isserlis and Niklas Schmidt, but the biggest influence was his teacher and mentor in Hamburg, Wolfgang Mehlhorn (assistent of Antonio Janigro).
Despite all this good advices and several prizes in important international Cello Competitions ( Markneukirchen, Belgrad, Rome, Hamburg) Roberto remained an unknown principal cellist at a german opera house and later at the SSO Singapore for a short period of time until 2008, when his solo career took off with his debut in Iasi , Romania with the Dvorak Concerto under the baton of Maestro Santorsola.
He’s nowadays a regularly invited soloist in Poland, Germany, Austria, Turkey, South Africa, Romania, Cyprus,Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain.
At the present moment Roberto is cello professor at the Conservatorio "C. Monteverdi" in Bolzano/Italy and plays an Alessandro Ciciliati , Ferrara 2010 cello.
A passion of him is the re-discovery ( together with M. Santorsola) of the Italian Solo Repertoire of the XX Century, and the Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cello Concerto is part of this project. But this includes Respighi, Casella, Ghedini, Malipiero too.
Roberto furthermore studied and performed the Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Canticle of the Sun” - a cello concerto for solo, chamber choir , and percussion - with the composer herself in Germany.
Despite all his achievements he keeps the opinion (quote) that : “ ...competitions had nothing to do with music and expression, on the contrary they nowadays tend to kill every form of diversity in a frantic search of success, success that actually is not long lasting and leaves little traces in the heart of any audience”.
“......every piece has an intimate story to say, whatever should be; our goal is to tell, like modern bards, this stories: stories made up not of words, spaces and timing, but sounds and therefore emotions and subtle memories, the so called UNTOLD stories, in a language that really has no borders. If we keep to think that we must show to the audience how good or fast or BRAVO we are, then well we are out of track”.
Steven Isserlis once told him : “.....you never do what I say, you use only your head!”.
LutosAir Quintet is one of the most active and versatile Polish wind instrument ensembles. Its wide repertoire includes both classic works and the latest pieces. LAQ has performed a number of world premieres, collaborated with many leading musicians, and given concerts in Poland and internationally.
It has made several album recordings of 20th and 21st century music. It took part in the musical film Neither Peace nor Quietness, directed by Zbigniew Bodzek and Michał Dawidowicz, which received numerous awards at film festivals. It was nominated for a Fryderyk 2023 award for the album 5 [+2].
Together with the outstanding jazzman Wayne Shorter and his quartet, LAQ performed during the Jazztopad Festival and the London Jazz Festival, presenting The Unfolding – a piece written by Shorter specially for this occasion. The quintet is also involved in outreach and community programmes and plays concerts in care homes, hospitals, hospices and prisons, as well as for the youngest audiences.
Zagan Acoustic - a band performing music from the borderline of avant-garde, jazz and folk. The musicians have been performing on concert stages in Poland and Europe for 20 years. There is no genre in which they can not find themselves. Expressive sound, virtuosity and a great sense of humor are the most common words in reviews. They play atmospheric chamber concerts, as well as large-scale events organized by, among others, the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the Polish Baltic Philharmonic, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot, the Lodz Philharmonic, the Szczecin Philharmonic and the Lower Silesia Philharmonic. The core of the repertoire consists of original compositions, also performed with chamber or symphony orchestra accompaniment.
Zagan Acoustic performs with jazzman Krzesimir Debski, vocalist Aga Brenzak and the Academic Choir of the University of Gdansk. For their performance artistry, they received a special mention at the 18th Polish Radio Folk Music Competition “New Tradition”. Their discography includes 5 albums, among them the debut CD “3:1” or the folk music-inspired album “Folk&Roll”.
JOACHIM ŁUCZAK - violinist and arranger - graduate of the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk. Co-founder of the Zagan Acoustic band and theTonation String Quartet. As an instrumentalist and arranger, he cooperates with many institutions, including: the D. Baduszkowa Music Theater in Gdynia, the Wybrzeze Theater in Gdansk, and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic in Sopot.
ANDRZEJ WOJCIECHOWSKI - clarinetist, graduate of the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk in the clarinet class of Professor Bogdan Ocieszak (diploma with distinction). He was twice a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. As a soloist, he has given concerts in Germany, Monaco, Italy, South Africa, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, England, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the USA, Canada, Russia, China, Ukraine and many cities in Poland. He is the first clarinetist of the F. Chopin Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra in Gdansk. His most important achievements may include a bravura performance of Krzysztof Penderecki's Concerto per clarinetto in the presence of the Master himself.
PAWEŁ ZAGAŃCZYK - accordionist and bandoneonist. A graduate of the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk, from which he graduated
with honors in the accordion class of Professor Krzysztof Olczak. Winner of more than twenty accordion competitions. He has recorded three solo albums
with contemporary music: Tango (2014), Globulus (2018), Fall of Icarus (2019), Impressions (2022) and many chamber music albums. His interests include improvised music, new compositions or experiments showcasing the broad spectrum of the accordion.
JAROSŁAW STOKOWSKI - double bass player and bass guitarist. He graduated from the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk in the double bass class of Sebastian Wypych and Janusz Dobrowolski. As a classical double bassist, he has collaborated with, among others, the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra. He has performed and recorded with Grzech Piotrowski's World Orchestra. He has over a dozen albums recorded with many artists.
Joachim Luczak - violin, percussion instruments
Andrzej Wojciechowski - clarinet
Paweł Zagańczyk - accordion
Jarosław Stokowski - double bass
