Artists

Sebastian Aleksandrowicz

Since 1996, soloist of the orchestra of the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw. Former oboist of the Gruppo di Tempera. He is a musician of the Amadeus Wind Ensemble, an ensemble bringing together musicians from Poland and the London Symphony Orchestra. As of 2019, he is the artistic director of the Warsaw Winds Plus Festival. Graduate of the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. From 2007 to 2014 he was the first oboist of the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also the first oboist of the Polish Radio Orchestra (2001-2003) and the National Philharmonic Orchestra (2005-2007). As a soloist and chamber musician, he has collaborated with such orchestras and ensembles as Opus Ensemble Seoul, Philharmonie der Nationen Hamburg, Morphing Chamber Orchestra Vienna, New Art Ensemble, Tokyo Solisten, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Sinfonia Varsovia, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus, Royal String Quartet, Lutoslawski Quartet, Hilliard Ensemble. He has performed in Poland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Russia, South Korea, Japan and Mexico.

José Gallardo

One of the most sought-after chamber music pianists in the world. Since 2008 he has been teaching at Leopold Mozart Centre, University of Augsburg. Together with Andreas Ottensamer, he is artistic director of the chamber music festival “Bürgenstock Festival” in Lucerne. 

He began to take piano lessons at the Conservatory in Buenos Aires. Later, he continued his studies with Prof. Poldi Mildner at the Department of Music, University of Mainz, Germany.

He has won many national and international awards, resulting in invitations to tour and major festivals. From 1998 to 2008 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Music of the University of Mainz.

As a pianist, he is co-author of two solo albums by Janusz Wawrowski: “Aurora” (2013) and “Hidden Violin” (2018).

Jakub Jakowicz

Leading Polish soloist and chamber musician. Graduate of the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. As a soloist he has cooperated with such orchestras as the Munich Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic in Prague, Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Dresden Philharmonic, Orchestra de la Suisse Romanse in Geneva, Orquesta Nacional in Madrid, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, NOSPR, National Philharmonic and Sinfonia Varsovia. He is a winner of many international competitions, e.g. in Lublin, Wattrelos, Takasaki, Bratislava, as well as a laureate of the Polish-Japanese Foundation prize for the best promising Polish violinist of the young generation (2002). He is the winner of the “Polityka” Passport for 2003 and was the first violinist of the Lutosławski Quartet from 2009 to 2014. Since 2006 he has been associated with the Zehetmair Quartet, with which he received the prestigious Diapason d’Or de l’Année award for best recording. Since 2004 he has been a lecturer at the F. Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. 

Tomasz Januchta

double bass player in the orchestra of the Grand Theatre of the National Opera in Warsaw, in the years 2006-2022 double bass player in the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. He learned to play the double bass in the class of Kazimierz Jendrysiak and Professor Andrzej Mysiński. In 2004 he graduated from the University of Music in Warsaw. He is a laureate of the 2nd prize in the National Double Bass Competition in Elbląg and received a distinction in the A. B. Ciechański National Double Bass Competition in Poznań. He performs as a soloist and a cameralist, he collaborates with such chamber ensembles as the Lutosławski Quartet, Chain Ensemble, Royal Quartet, Meccore String Quartet, among others. In the last decade, as a chamber musician, he has performed at most of the major music festivals in the country. He has played in chamber ensembles with such musicians as Piotr Anderszewski, Michel Letiec, Jakub Jakowicz, José Gallardo, Kevin Kenner, Ingolf Wunder, Villu Veski, Maria Machowska, Marcin Zdunik, Tomoko Akasaka, Romuald Gołębiowski, Paul Gulda and others. As a chamber bassist he has taken part in many classical music recordings. From 2012 to 2016, he was a lecturer at the Princess Daisy International Ensemble Chamber Music Festival. In 2021, as a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture, National Heritage in the music category, he realised the project “Forgotten transcription – Tadeusz Pelczar’s elaboration of J. S. Bach’s Cello Suites for double bass”, as part of which he recorded and published on the Internet all of this transcriptions of J. S. Bach’s Cello Suites.

Szymon Krzeszowiec

He is a highly regarded violinist, soloist and chamber musician. He graduated from the K. Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He is a laureate of violin competitions in Poznań, Warsaw and Brescia and winner of first prizes at chamber music competitions in Copenhagen and Sondershausen. As a soloist, he has performed with leading Polish orchestras such as the NOSPR, Sinfonia Varsovia and most̨ philharmonic orchestras in the country. Since 2001, he has been the primarius of the Silesian Quartet, with which he regularly performs around the world. The ensemble has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Gramophone Award for its recording of Grażyna Bacewicz’s complete string quartets (2017), seven Fryderyk Awards, as well as the Coryphaeus of Polish Music (2019) and the Gold Medal for ‘Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis’.
Szymon Krzeszowiec heads the String Instruments Department and teaches the violin̨ class at his alma mater. He exercises artistic supervision over the Zakopane Academy of Art and the International Violin Festival in Katowice.

Jakob Kullberg

is renowned in Denmark and internationally for his performances and premieres of modern cello concertos and chamber music.

He is acclaimed for his warm, beautiful sound, his wide range of expression and his characteristically exploratory approach to the music – an approach borne by great empathy, intuition and intelligence.

Since 1999, Kullberg has enjoyed a close and unique collaboration with the Danish composer Per Nørgård A collaboration that for both has – a partnership which has been of immense importance for both of them in exploring and expanding the inherent possibilities of the cello in a joint compositional process. This has resulted in a large number of works composed by Nørgård for Kullberg, including Nørgård’s 2nd Cello Concerto and his 4th and 5th Solo Sonatas. The collaboration has also resulted in works in which Kullberg has directly composed and improvised his own cello cadences. This can be for example be heard in Nocturnal Cadenza in Three Nocturnal Movements, which was given its premiere performance with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015 and recorded in 2019.

Kullberg has also developed this idea of close collaboration between musician and composer with another leading Nordic composer: Kaija Saariaho. Kullberg has recorded both of Saariaho’s cello concertos, most recently her 2nd Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which will be released in 2021.

Other recent collaborations have resulted in the premiere performance of Kasper Rofelt’s Cello Concerto in 2018 and Niels Rønsholdt’s Country with Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej (Katowice) 2017, in which the cello soloist is heard as both a singing and improvising performer. Country will be released on CD in 2021.

Jakob Kullberg is a unique musician who, with curiosity and courage, is constantly exploring and pushing the boundaries in relation to the instrument, as well as in relation to himself and the composer/performer roles.  He also likes to cross over between genres in collaborations with, for example, experimental improvisational music or song forms

Marcin Markowicz

Since 2005 artistic director of the Ensemble Festival. Founder and second violinist of the Lutosławski Quartet and concertmaster of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. From 2007 to 2019 concertmaster of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. He is a member of the Młynarski-Masecki Jazzband. He is also a lecturer at the F. Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the Zakopane Academy of Art.

He studied in Lübeck, Warsaw and Boston. As a soloist, he has collaborated with, among others, the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, the NOSPR in Katowice, the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, the Gdańsk Philharmonic, the Sinfonia Iuventus and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has participated in festivals in many countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. He is also a composer. His works have been performed all over the world by performers such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sol Gabetta, Agata Szymczewska, Jakub Jakowicz, the Silesian Quartet, the Lutoslawski Quartet and the Szymanowski Quartet.
He has recorded for Naxos, CD Accord, DUX, NFM, Odradek and for the Polish Radio.

Marcin Masecki

Pianist, composer, conductor, activist. He is a leader or member of many diverse projects. His trademark is a virtuosic fusion of stylistically disparate genres and crossing the boundaries between so-called high art and entertainment. He studied jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is a gold medal winner at the International Jazz Competition in Moscow. 

He has recorded, among others, with Tomasz Stańko, Michał Urbaniak and Andrzej Jagodziński. He is also co-founder, together with Jan Emil Młynarski, the Młynarski-Masecki Jazzband. Masecki also performs frequently in duo with drummer Jerzy Rogiewicz, performing ragtime music from the second decade of the 20th century. 

For the past few years, Masecki has been an active contributor to the summer programme of Plac Defilad, Warsaw’s cultural backyard by the Studio Theatre. Together with Marcin Markowicz, he has hosted the series ‘Composers’ Birthday’ at Warsaw’s Studio Theatre. 

Maciej Młodawski

Cello concertmaster of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic and member of the Lutosławski Quartet. Graduate of the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in the cello class of Prof. Tomasz Strahl and Prof. Andrzej Bauer (diploma with honours). He also studied as a guest student at the Hochschule für Musik Augsburg under Julius Berger and Sebastian Hess.

He is a laureate of the D. Danczowski Cello Competition in Poznań and the Chamber Music Competition in Łódź. As a soloist, he has performed with the Wrocław Philharmonic, e.g. inaugurating the 2008/2009 season under the baton of Jacek Kaspszyk, and was one of two soloists (alongside Garrick Ohlsson) on the orchestra’s three-week tour of the USA. He also performed the Polish premiere of Ståle Kleiberg’s work Dopo for cello and string orchestra. 

He gives concerts in Poland and abroad as a member of the Lutosławski Quartet, as well as in duo with the pianist Agnieszka Przemyk-Bryła. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has taken part in such festivals as Wratislavia Cantans, Ensemble, Music on the Peaks, Chain, Lutosławski Forum, Hong Kong Arts Festival and Klara Festival in Brussels. 

Oskar Hamerski

Actor at the National Theatre in Warsaw. Graduate of the Ludwik Solski State Higher School of Theatre in Kraków (1999).  
In 1999-2003 he was an actor at the Teatr Nowy in Łódź, where he played the main roles in performances by, among others, Mikołaj Grabowski, Paweł Miśkiewicz, Łukasz Kos, including the title role in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” – the last performance by Kazimierz Dejmek.

He is fascinated by the idea of theatrical improvisation and instrumental theatre (Bogusław Schaeffer, MW2). In 2011 he participated in an improvisation workshop with Keith Johnston in Denmark. Since then he has become a promoter and advocate of the art of impro. Author of the book ‘Theatrical improvisation according to K. Johnstone’ and editor of the book ‘IMPRO: spontaneous world creation’ by K. Johnstone. Frank Totino’s assistant during workshops at the PWST in Krakow. Introduced impro to the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, where he taught at the department of directing and dramatic acting. Currently, he teaches at Theatre Academy in Warsaw and at the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Cezary Kosiński

theatre and film actor. He has performed at many theatres in Warsaw, such as the Rozmaitości Theatre, the Dramatyczny Theatre, the Powszechny Theatre, the Polonia Theatre, the Och-Teatr, the IMKA Theatre and the Buffo Theatre, as well as in Kraków, at the National Old Theatre and in Wrocław, at the Polski Theatre in the Underground. He has taken part in over a hundred film and television productions. He has been a lecturer at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw for many years. He is currently affiliated with the National Theatre in Warsaw.

Jakub de Barbaro

He is involved in publishing graphics, identification and information systems. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Co-founder of the Goldex Poldex cooperative. Member of STGU (Association of Applied Graphic Designers). Collaborates with, among others, the Raster Gallery, the Art Museum in Łódź, the Ha!art Corporation, the Krakow Film Festival and the W. Lutosławski National Forum of Music. He has designed for the European Conference of Promoters of New Music (Netherlands), Arnolfini (UK), Villa Reykjavik (Iceland), Villa Tokyo (Japan), WNF (Austria), Corpovia (France), among others. In 2014, he designed the visuals for the Cricoteka building in Kraków, and in 2017 (together with Kuba Sowiński) the graphic design for the Krakow Film Festival, which won a silver award at the European Design Awards in the Visual Identity Prints category. In 2019, he received the Polish Graphic Design Award in the Publishing category for the graphic design of the novel ‘Tamam Shud’. 

Chamber Music Interpretation Masterclass
Piano
Szymon Drabiński, Marek Jeutner

Violin
Olivia Bujnowicz-Wadowska, Marcjanna Derentowicz, Jakub Grott, Julia Iskrzycka-Nowak, Aleksandra Kornowicz, Alicja Pustuła

Viola
Maria Dębina, Zuzanna Sobecka, Oliwia Stawicka

Cello
Wojciech Bafeltowski, Michał Bień, Ni Zhang, Shanyue Zhu

Acting Masterclass
Kaja Kozłowska-Żygadło, Maria Witkowska, Aniela Turkot

Jazz Masterclass
Stanisław Szmigiero (piano), Sebastian Zawadzki (piano)