Artists

ElettroVoce Duo arose out of the collaboration of two composers: Agata Zubel and Cezary Duchnowski. Both are characterized by a unique approach to music - fascination with timbre, an expansion of performance resources, eternal seeking. For Zubel, who is also active as an avantgarde vocalist, there is a desire to discover a new means of vocal expression; for Duchnowski, it is a search for new contexts for traditional instruments. This found particular expression in the utilization of the human voice and the new possibilities afforded by the computer. ElettroVoce Duo has performed at numerous contemporary music Festivals in Poland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia. Their interpretations (often their own compositions) have been many times recorded and presented by radio and television broadcasters. In 2005 the artists received a special prize at the prestigious International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition and in 2008 Wroclaw Music Award for CD ElettroVoce. Their repertoire includes many pieces by Polish composers, but also electroacoustic music by composers including Jean-Claude Risset, Kaija Saariaho, Alejandro Viñao.

Kwadrofonik is the only quartet of its kind in Poland and one of a few in the world and was created out of two duos: Lutosławski Piano Duo (pianists Emilia Sitarz and Bartek Wąsik) and Hob-beats Percussion Duo (percussionists). Magdalena Kordylasińska i Miłosz Pękala). Kwadrofonik's career took of in 2006, when they spectacularly won the 9th Polish Radio Festival – Nowa Tradycja (New Tradition) – where the musicians received Grand Prix and the Audience Award. The critics hailed the quartet as superinnovative and blazing new trails for folk and world music. In 2007 Kwadrofonik became a laureate of a prestigious Special Award at the 3rd Contest of European Broadcast Union (EBU) in Bratislava (Slovakia). The award for modernity, innovation and loyalty to tradition was granted for the frst time in the history of this contest. In 2008 the debut CD Folklove – released by the Polish Radio – was enthusiastically welcomed by the media and in 2009 the musicians received Folk Phonogram of the Year – an award given by critics for the best folk/ world music CD in Poland. In 2010, during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Frederic Chopin's birthday the quartet prepared a project with their own arrangements of Chopin's masterpieces – I was there, Frederic – presented at Carnegie Hall and Chicago Symphony Hall.

In 2011 Kwadrofonik had a debut in the Berliner Philharmonie where their own version of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was presented. In 2012 quartet performed the frst time in Asia – Izumi Hall in Osaka and Chamber Music Festival in Beijing.

In 2013 the quartet met Polish jazz singer, Dorota Miśkiewicz and worked on their own arrangements of Lutosławski’s Children Songs. CD has been released by Sony BMG and in 2014 was awarded a gold record. In 2015 Kwadrofonik received the annual prestigious Polish award Paszport Polityki (Polityka’s Passport), presented by the weekly magazine Polityka since 1993, a cultural prize for achievements in classical music. In September 2015 Kwadrofonik ran the frst edition of their own contemporary chamber music festival in Warsaw – Kwadrofonik Festival.

The musicians also perform pieces originally composed for such an instrumental group. They gave also several world-premieres of the pieces composed especially for the quartet. They collaborated with many outstanding Polish composers, singers, musicians and visual artists.

KAPELA NIWIŃSKICH are pupils of country musicians, practitioners and researchers of music traditions of Central Poland, seeking indigenous sound of the country music. They are initiators and participants at numerous activities aimed at reviving the local music tradition. The ensemble draw their repertoire from the violin country music, mostly of the radomskie-opoczyńskie border, from the ‘kajok’ violinist Piotr Gaca.

Cellist Anja Lechner performs as a soloist with leading orchestras, as a chamber musician, and as a creative contributor to projects spanning cultures and genres. Composers including Tigran Mansurian, Valentin Silvestrov and Tõnu Kõrvits have written music for her. The range of her musical interests is reflected in more than twenty albums for ECM Records. Lechner was a founding member of the Rosamunde Quartet, with whom she worked for 18 years until the group’s dissolution in 2009, playing on major international stages and at chamber music festivals. Since 1998, she collaborates with Argentine bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi. This season, Anja Lechner is presenting music for solo cello by composers from Johann Sebastian Bach to Valentin Silvestrov, and playing with French pianist and composer François Couturier, both in duo and with the Tarkovsky Quartet. Additionally, she is touring with guitarist Pablo Márquez, playing music by Franz Schubert from the forthcoming ECM album Die Nacht, scheduled for November 2018 release. Anja Lechner grew up in Neubeuern am Inn and studied with Heinrich Schiff and János Starker. She lives and teaches in Munich.

Singer, instrumentalist, songwriter, composer of theatrical and film music, screenwriter of documentaries, ethnomusicologist, populariser of Polish traditional music.

What kind of music do we expect from a musician? What music to perform to not stop longing for what is happening while making it? What music do we want to hear under our fingers and in our voices? What music to create, to feel the need of being inside of it over and over again?

There’s nothing unusual in the union of voice and piano. Bartłomiej Wąsik is a pianist, arranger, member of the Kwadrofonik ensemble and the Lutosławski Piano Duo. Barbara Kinga Majewska is an artist making voice and words her creative tools. They met as interpreters and performers of modern composers, and were connected by liking for songs. As a duo they move beyond categories and genres, staying faithful to themselves