Artists
Meet our artists
Anna Mikołajczyk-Niewiedział
soprano
For many years she has been a soloist at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, the Baltic Opera or the Wrocław Opera, where she has sung many leading roles, including in operas by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Stravinsky. She is often entrusted with the premieres of her works by contemporary composers such as Zygmunt Krauze, Paweł Łukaszewski, Piotr Moss and Elżbieta Sikora. A notable success was the creation of the title role in Elzbieta Sikora’s opera Madame Curie – premiered in November 2011 in Paris. The production, produced by the Baltic Opera, directed by Marek Weiss, under the baton of Wojciech Michniewski, was met with great enthusiasm by audiences and critics and the singer and the composer were awarded in the poll of “Gazeta Wyborcza Trójmiasto” Sztormy 2011. For the role of Maria, Anna Mikolajczyk also received the theatrical award of the Mayor of the City of Gdansk. In 2013, the Orphée du Prestige Lyrique de l’Europe de l’Academie du Disque Lyrique award honored the DVD Madame Curie released by DUX. She devotes much of her concert activity to oratorio, cantata and chamber music. She is particularly appreciated in the circle of early music, to which the singer’s artistic debut is connected. In 2001 she received the Zofia Rayzacher Award for the greatest artistic individuality in early music at the 11th Early Music Festival at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. Her achievements include performances on world stages, accompanied by outstanding musicians and conductors. She proudly promotes the achievements of Polish composers of all eras. She has recorded more than 50 CD albums, and among them are 12 that have received the FRYDERYK Phonographic Academy Award, among them a solo album on which the singer presents the songs of Karol Szymanowski was awarded two FRYDERYK 2008 awards in the categories: Vocal Recital Album of the Year, Opera, Operetta, Ballet, and Phonographic Debut of the Year. The FRYDERYK 2019 award in the Chamber Music Album of the Year category recognized the album released by Chopin University Press: Stabat Mater – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Luctus Mariae – Paweł Łukaszewski. Together with Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, she recorded all the songs of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the album is the winner of the 2022 Fryderyk Award in the category: Chamber Music – Duets.
She was awarded the title of professor of art in 2023. She teaches a solo singing class at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
Marta Czarkowska-Lawaty
soprano
Graduated from the UMFC in Prof. Małgorzata Marczewska’s singing class and in Prof. Bogdan Gola’s choral conducting class. She also studied German and cultural studies at Warsaw University. She works professionally as an artist with the National Philharmonic Choir. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician. She has recorded six albums and several concerts for Polish Radio and TVP Kultura. She has won a Fryderyk Award (1 award, 1 nomination), a scholarship from the Minister of National Education, a scholarship from the Prime Minister, and has been nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award. As a conductor, she has won 10 awards in Polish and international choral competitions, including the Grand Prix of the Waclaw of Szamotuly Festival, the Grand Prix of the international Cantu Gaudeamus competition in Bialystok, 1st place at the International Religious Music Festival in Rumia. Since 2018, she has been a member of the ProMODERN vocal sextet, with which she has given concerts at the National Philharmonic, Szczecin, Olsztyn, Pomeranian, Gorzow, Kashubian, Czestochowa and Jelenia Gora Philharmonics, NOSPR, S1 studios, recorded numerous concerts for radio and television, and performed at dozens of festivals at home and abroad, including three times at the Warsaw Autumn and Lublin Codes. Since 2014, she has been a member of the Tempus vocal quartet, which promotes music of the Polish Renaissance and Baroque. The quartet has made numerous recordings of Polish sacred music of the 15th-17th centuries and has performed at dozens of early music festivals, including Rome, Palermo, Lublin and Krakow. She gives solo concerts of 16th-18th century opera and oratorio-cantata repertoire, as well as contemporary music. She has performed with Sinfonia Varsovia, Bornus Consort, La Tempesta, Sabionetta, Ars Nova, Il Tempo, Gradus ad Parnassum, Il Giardino d’Amore, Cappella Viridimontana, Camerata Vistula, among others. In 2014-2018, she toured as a soloist with the early music ensemble Miraculis. She has performed at the Polish Radio, the National Forum of Music, the Podkarpacie, Gorzów, Pomeranian and Kashubian Philharmonics, the Royal Castle and at dozens of festivals, including: Forum Musicum, Song of Our Roots in Yaroslavl, Festival of Three Cultures, Varmia Musica, Musica Sacromontana, Szczawno-Zrój Baroque Festival or Borderlands Heritage Festival.
Karolina Zych
Flutist of the MACV historical instruments orchestra of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. Lecturer at the Department of Historical Performance Practices at the I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan. She received her doctorate in 2019, specializing in flute literature of the Empfindsamkeit style. She was born in 1979 in Radom, where she graduated from the School of Music in the class of transverse flute. She developed her skills at the S. Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk, and then at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig in the Alte Musik department, in Benedek Csalog’s traverso flute class. She is a specialist in playing historical transverse flutes from the 17th to 19th centuries, but without abandoning 20th century performance practices on the modern flute. She is a regular collaborator with the Capella Cracoviensis orchestra, with which she has performed under the baton of Jan Tomasz Adamus, Andrew Parrot, Paul McCreesh, Christophe Rousette, and Alessandro Moccia, among others, performing a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to Romanticism. She has participated in CD recordings, including Stanislaw Moniuszko’s “Halka” for Sony Music. She was a soloist with the Confraternia Caper Lubliniensis orchestra, the Diletto orchestra of Bialystok, and the Radom Chamber Orchestra. She is a member of The Ballard Consort. She gives concerts in Poland and also abroad, with performances in Germany, Norway, Greece, Portugal, Japan, Belgium, Lithuania, Russia, among others.
Marek Niewiedział
Marek Niewiedział (b. 1972, Poznań) is one of the first oboists in Poland to specialise professionally in historical oboes. He is an active soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and a dedicated promoter of early music, as well as an organiser of various artistic initiatives. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Poznań, where he studied oboe with Prof. Mieczysław Koczorowski, from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he studied Baroque and Classical oboe with Ku Ebbinge, and from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, where he studied with Wolfgang Kube. In 1996, he founded a local branch of the Polish Early Music Society. Since 1998, he has been a regular collaborator with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, serving as principal oboist of the Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense orchestra, and as its coordinator in the years 2018–2023. He has also collaborated with most early music ensembles and orchestras in Poland. His international activity focuses mainly on ensembles and orchestras in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, including Musica Florea (Prague), Ensemble Inegal (Prague), Collegium Marianum (Prague), Musica Aeterna (Bratislava), Akademie für Alte Musik (Berlin), and Capella Savaria (Szombathely). In 2005, he collaborated with the BBC on the production of the biographical film The Genius of Beethoven. In 2019, he founded the ensemble Warsaw Harmony, specialising in the Harmoniemusik repertoire. In 2020, he completed postgraduate studies in Cultural Management at the Warsaw School of Economics with distinction. He is the founder and artistic director of the Varmia Musica Festival and the Varmia Musica Academia workshops in Lidzbark Warmiński, as well as co-organiser of the concert series Muzyczny Szlak Świętej Warmii and Zamek Muzyki. In 1996, he received the Poznań City Council Award for artistic achievements, and in 2002 the Zofia Rayzacher Award for outstanding artistic individuality in early music. In 2023, he was awarded the honorary badge “Meritorious for Polish Culture”. In 2025, he received honorary citizenship of the city of Lidzbark Warmiński.
Tomasz Wesołowski
Graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdansk, where in 2004 he received a diploma with distinction in the class of Professor Wojciech Orawc. Awarded scholarships from the Mayor of Gdansk and the Fondazione Marco Fodella. From 2004 to 2008, he studied historical bassoon at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Donna Agrell, Wouter Verschuren) and at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan (Alberto Grazzi). He collaborates with leading orchestras of the historical performance movement, including Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Capella Cracoviensis, {oh!Historical Orchestra, B’rock (René Jacobs), Freiburger Barockorchester, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), Les Musiciens du Prince (Cecilia Bartoli), Anima Eterna, Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Bach Collegium Japan (Masaaki Suzuki), Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Netherlands Bach Society, Arte Dei Suonatori. He has recorded for Mezzo, Arte, Erato, Polish Radio, Channel Classics, naïve, Alpha, BIS, ORF, claves, Brillant Classics, DUX, and Netflix and HBO. He is also active as a lecturer at courses and universities: Academy of Music in Poznań, Academy of Music in Gdańsk, Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main Varmia Musica Academia in Lidzbark Warmiński and at the Oficina de Musica de Curitiba festival in Brazil.
Veronika Skuplik
The internationally renowned violinist Veronika Skuplik finds her artistic sphere of activity in
touring, teaching and recordings. She primarily plays in solo ensembles such as Concerto Palatino, Weser-Renaissance Bremen, the FBO Consort, la dolcezza and with her duo partners Andreas Arend and Jörg Jacobi. UrgentMusic is her ensemble, in which she meets with passionate musicians she holds in high esteem. She was artist in residence at the Festival Oude Musik in Utrecht in 2011 and at the Festivalul de Musica Veche Timisoara in 2012. She is a lecturer for baroque violin and viola as well as ensemble playing at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and gives masterclasses in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, New York (Carnegie Hall) etc. She has been a lecturer for the European Hanse Ensemble and in the studios of the Musikfest Bremen for many years. With Skuplik-Akademie (ug haftungsbeschränkt) she created a format for artistic project development Veronika Skuplik’s discography comprises over 120 CDs, including five of her own productions on the rabernardo label. VIOLINO I with Austrian sonatas for unaccompanied scordatura violin from around 1680 was released in 2014 (the Strad: “Skuplik brings to these intricate miniatures an aristocratic poise,…” ), SILK&TWEED with Andreas Arend in 2020. The recording of VIOLINO II – CATENA BOHEMICA 2021 was nominated for the longlist of the German Record Critics’ Award. In March 2023, VIOLINO III – IL CICLO DELLA VITA completed the trilogy of Austrian violin sonatas from around 1680. UMBRA AMBRA, a CD recording by her ensemble UrgentMusic with alto soloist Wiebke Lehmkuhl, was released in December 2023.
Radosław Kamieniarz
Radoslaw Kamieniarz – a versatile violinist, pursuing his musical interests mainly in the stream of historical performance practices. He graduated from the H. Wieniawski State High School of Music “School of Talents” in Poznań, then from the I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, where he studied under Prof. Jadwiga Kaliszewska and Prof. Jakub Haufa, and the K. Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, in the baroque violin class of Dr. Zbigniew Pilch. He has performed and recorded at home and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster and member of symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, as well as many leading ensembles specializing in historical music performance. Co-founder of the string quartet Musicarius, established in 2003. Since 2007, he has been a musician of the Ensemble of Early Instruments of the Warsaw Chamber Opera “Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense”, in which he serves as concertmaster, soloist, and also includes artistic direction of concerts, performances and the realization of recordings featuring outstanding soloists, including: Vivica Genaux, Filippe Mineccia, Simone Kermes, Aleksandra Olczyk, Anna Mikołajczyk-Niewiedział, Ingrida Gápová, Ewa Tracz, Piotr Olech. From 2015 to 2022 he taught in the class of baroque violin and baroque viola at the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw.
Piotr Chrupek
He is a graduate of the I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in the viola class of Prof. Marcin Murawski, and the K. Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław in the baroque viola class of Prof. Zbigniew Pilch. He participated in master classes under Prof. Piotr Reichert, Zbigniew Pilch, Jaroslaw Thiel, Sirkki-Lisa Kaakinen, Markus Möllenbeck. He is a co-founder and member of the string quartet “Musicarius” specializing in early music performance, with which he performs at home and abroad. He is a permanent co-founder of the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra. He is also a pillar of the Academy of Early Music Foundation in Szczecin. For many years he led the viola section of the early instruments ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera “Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense”. He also collaborated with the ensemble The English Baroque Solists. He currently performs with the most important early music ensembles in Poland as a soloist, chamber musician, and often as a group leader. He participates in radio broadcasts and CD recordings. In 2019, he was honored with the Fryderyk Award in the “chamber music” category. He has performed with Jane Rogers, Enrico Gatti, Kati Debretzeni, Peter Hanson. He gained orchestral experience under the baton of artists such as John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Paul McCreesh and Giovanni Antonini.
Jakub Kościukiewicz
Cellist specializing in playing historical instruments. Pedagogue and active animator of initiatives and events related to historical performance of early music. Graduate of the Academy of Music in Cracow in the cello class of Ad. T. Kaminska and the Guildhall School of Music&Drama in London in the baroque cello class of A. McGillivray. He also studied at the Dresdner Akademie für Alte Musik in the baroque cello class of Ch. Kyprianides. As a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral musician, he has performed and recorded with most Polish ensembles playing historical instruments, including A. Kosendiak’s Collegio di Musica Sacra Lower Silesian Baroque Orchestra, Lyric Orchestra, Harmonia and Jasna Góra Band led by J. T. Adamus, Concerto Polacco, Harmonia Sacra, La Tempesta, Hyacinthus Ensemble, Violin Consort, FAMD Orchestra.PL, Goldberg Baroque Ensemble, Orchestra of the First Republic, Polish Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Warsaw Harmony, Starck Compagnay, Il Piacere, Silva Rerum, Cantores Minores Wratislavienses, Camerata Podlaska, Fiori Pari, Nova Silesia, Cappella dell’Ospedale della Pietà, Il Giardino d’Amore, Sezione Aurea, Capella 1547, Maresiénne Consort and also with the Belgian ensembles Collegium Vocale and Les Muffatti led by P. van Heyghen. He has also performed in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Russia, the UK, Ukraine, Slovakia, China, Japan and the USA. He has participated in the recording of more than 30 CDs for such labels as CD Accord, Dux, Sarton, Cypres, LionRecords, Musicon, ProMusica Camerata. Since 2005, he has worked with the Musicae Antique Collegiae Varsoviense ensemble at the Warsaw Chamber Opera (he currently serves as concertmaster there). At the Lodz Academy of Music named after G. and K. Bacewicz since 2011, he teaches (currently as an assistant professor) baroque cello and leads early music chamber ensembles and an academic baroque orchestra. Founder and artistic director of the Altberg Ensemble baroque orchestra in Lodz.
Krzysztof Firlus
A multifaceted musician, he draws on instrumentation ranging from the modern and baroque double bass through numerous varieties of viola da gamba, including the rare pardessus de viole. He performs as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician, drawing on repertoire written from the Renaissance to the present day, including works written especially for him. He is an alumnus of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (class of Vittorio Ghielmi) and the Academy of Music in Katowice (class of Mark Caudle). He is permanently affiliated with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. He has collaborated with the {oh!} Historic Orchestra, Silesian Quartet, Le Poème Harmonique and BachAkademie Stuttgart, among others. He has won numerous foreign and national competitions. Among his many CD recordings are the first Polish solo gambol album Gamba Sonatas, recorded with his wife, Anna Firlus, which was well received by international critics and nominated for the “Fryderyk 2019” award, C.F. Abel – Sonatas from the Maltzan Collection, featuring the world’s first recordings of C.F. Abel sonatas discovered in the Poznan University Library (nominated for the 2020 International Classical Music Awards and “Fryderyk 2020”), the album Music of the French Masters – Music of the Warsaw Castle with the {oh!Historical Orchestra} (solo part in Michel Corrette’s concerto for viole da gamba Le Phénix) – nomination for the “Fryderyk 2018” award, Tansman – from trio to octet with the Silesian Quartet, Progressive Baroque with the Nikola Kolodziejczyk Orchestra (“Fryderyk 2016” award), Réflexions with compositions by Adrian Robak or Portraits – Les caractères français with the {oh!} trio, which he forms with Martyna Pastuszka and Anna Firlus. Krzysztof Firlus currently teaches the viola da gamba class at the Academy of Music in Katowice and the double bass class at the Academy of Music in Cracow.
Ewa Mrowca
Born in Kraków, where she began studying the harpsichord at the age of 12. She graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music in Kraków in the class of Elżbieta Stefańska. She is also a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London in the class of Nicholas Parle, as well as the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the class of Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. She further developed her skills at masterclasses led by Kenneth Gilbert, Kris Verhelst, Christophe Rousset, Elisabeth Joyé, Pierre Hantaï, and Jesper B. Christensen. In 2003, she received an award at the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition in London, held on historical instruments. She has been a scholarship holder of, among others, the Swiss government (Bundes-Exzellenz-Stipendium), the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
Ewa Mrowca is deeply committed to historically informed performance practice and basso continuo realisation. She has performed recitals on harpsichords from the collections of Fenton House in London, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, and the Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Berlin, where in November 2023 she performed J.S. Bach’s Clavier Übung II on a 1740 Gottfried Silbermann harpsichord. JAs a soloist, she has appeared at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław and at major festivals such as Actus Humanus and Varmia Musica.
She performs with early music ensembles in Poland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, and the USA. She has worked under the direction of Alfredo Bernardini, Benjamin Bayl, Olivia Centurioni, and Paul McCreesh, among others, and has toured Europe several times with Jakub Józef Orliński and Il Giardino d’Amore.
She is a co-founder of the Baroque orchestra Altberg Ensemble, with which she has recorded two albums for DUX: Suites & Concerto under Peter Van Heyghen and Ouvertures & Suites under Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. Between 2014 and 2023, she regularly collaborated with Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, participating in productions of Lully’s Armide and Rameau’s Castor et Pollux (directed by Deda Cristina Colonna).
Her discography includes three solo albums released by DUX. Her debut, Jean Nicolas Geoffroy. Pièces de clavessin, received excellent international reviews, a 5 Diapason award, and was nominated for the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. Her second album, Louis Marchand. Pièces de clavecin, was released in 2021, followed by a double album of Bach’s French Suites. In 2025, her double album Jean-Henry d’Anglebert Pièces de clavecin was released by CD Accord and recorded at the National Forum of Music.
Ewa Mrowca is a professor and currently teaches harpsichord and basso continuo at the music academies in Łódź and Kraków. Since 2014, she has also been a lecturer at the Varmia Musica Academia summer masterclasses in Lidzbark Warmiński. She plays instruments built by Detmar Hungerberg and Bruce Kennedy.
Zuzanna Budziarek
Harpsichordist, mechanic, restorer of historical instruments. She deals with the construction and restoration of harpsichords and related instruments. Since 2015, she has been working at the prestigious Bruce Kennedy workshop as a specialist in mechanics and intonation. Thanks to her skills, she works with performers, institutions and builders recognized around the world. Instruments she has adjusted have been played by Jean Rondeau, Marco Mencoboni, Christophe Rousset and Skip Sempe, among others. In 2019, she was invited to The Juilliard School in New York to prepare a harpsichord for a recital at Carnegie Hall, and in 2021 she established a partnership with builder Jim Hall in Barcelona. She travels regularly in Poland and Europe, reviewing instruments belonging to both institutions and private individuals.
Marcin Szelest
Marcin Szelest is Professor of Organ at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków. He performs as a soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with numerous early music ensembles and historical instrument groups, including Concerto Palatino, The Bach Ensemble, Vasa Consort, Weser-Renaissance Bremen, and the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra.
He has recorded for Accent, CD Accord, Claves, cpo, Motette, Musicon, and Warner Classics. He also teaches masterclasses within the Europäisches Hanse-Ensemble in Lübeck and at the Varmia Musica Academia in Lidzbark Warmiński. JHis habilitation thesis, Stylistic Transformations in Italian Organ Music at the Turn of the 16th and 17th Centuries (2007), was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize.
He has published critical editions of the complete works of Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński (2015) and Adam Jarzębski (2021), as well as the Braniewo–Oliwa tablatures (2021) and a reconstruction of the repertoire of the “Warsaw Organ Tablature” (2024). He currently leads a research project entitled Organ Music of the 16th–18th Centuries in Manuscript Sources from the Territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Silesia – Scholarly Editions, funded by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. He is also a member of the Scientific Council of the series Fontes Musicae in Polonia and artistic director of the Omnia Beneficia Festival and the 1679.org Festival.
Anna Swoboda
She graduated with distinction in lute performance from the Academy of Music in Kraków in the class of Jerzy Żak, and from the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen under the guidance of Rolf Lislevand, as well as with a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Literary Comparative Studies at the Jagiellonian University. She participated in masterclasses with Hopkinson Smith, Joachim Held, and Jacob Lindberg. As a basso continuo player, she has collaborated with soloists and ensembles both in Poland and abroad, as well as with opera houses in Stuttgart (Wilhelma Theater), Pforzheim, and Kraków, with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, Capella Cracoviensis, the Polish Royal Opera, the Danmarks Radio Orkestret in Copenhagen, and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig. Her doctoral dissertation focused on chamber music with obligato lute from the 17th and 18th centuries, for which she made premiere audio recordings (Prime Minister’s Award 2023). In 2023, her solo album Timeless Lute was released, featuring works for baroque lute by Silvius Leopold Weiss and the premiere recording of the suite Le Parnasse Silesienne by Marek Pasieczny.
Marek Weiss-Grzesiński
He graduated in Polish Philology from the University of Warsaw and in Theatre Directing from the State Theatre Academy (PWST) in Warsaw. He made his debut with Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida at the National Theatre.
From 1978 to 1981 he served as director of the Musical Theatre in Słupsk, with a programme focused primarily on Shakespeare. A British Institute fellowship enabled him to produce Hamlet, which was awarded Best Production at the festival in Toruń.
In the years that followed he was a resident director at the National Theatre in Warsaw (including Waiting for Godot), and from 1982–88 and 1992–95 he served as chief director of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, where his productions included Boris Godunov, The Haunted Manor, Fidelio, Faust, La Traviata, Macbeth, The Master and Margarita, Salome, and the Polish premieres of Wozzeck and Paradise Lost.
From 1995 to 2001 he held the position of Artistic Director of the Poznań Opera. Between 2008 and 2016 he was General and Artistic Director of the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, which he transformed — together with his wife, choreographer Izadora Weiss — into a modern arts centre with its own ballet company (Baltic Dance Theatre). There he staged landmark premieres, including the world premiere of Elżbieta Sikora’s Madame Curie (Paris, UNESCO) and Penderecki’s The Black Mask.
He has worked as a guest director in numerous countries (the USA, South Korea, Israel, Turkey, Bulgaria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovakia, and others), and his productions have been presented in Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, Beijing, and Tokyo, among other cities.
From 2006 to 2014 he was a resident director at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. His most recent productions include Turandot (Podlasie Opera), Samson and Delilah (Łódź), Idomeneo (Polish Royal Opera), and the forthcoming Don Quixote (Wrocław) and Falstaff (Polish National Opera) — all created in collaboration with Izadora Weiss and her White Dance Theatre.
In total he has directed over 150 premieres. He has taught at theatre academies in Warsaw and Kraków. He is the author of seven novels and the autobiography White Whale. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Gloria Artis Medal of Cultural Merit and the Pomeranian Arts Award.
Marta Niedźwiecka
A graduate of the harpsichord class of Prof. Marta Czarna-Kaczmarska and Dr. Aleksandra Rupocińska at the Academy of Music in Wrocław, as well as the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig in the class of Nicholas Parle. She has taken part in numerous masterclasses led by, among others, Ketil Haugsand, Jacques Ogg, Bernhard Klapprott, Władysław Kłosiewicz, Marcin Szelest, and Marek Toporowski. She specialises in historical keyboard instruments in their full variety.
The artist is active as both a performer and teacher. She lectures at the Academy of Music in Wrocław and at the Varmia Musica Festival in Lidzbark Warmiński. As a chamber musician, she collaborates with numerous ensembles, including the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, Ars Cantus, Cantores Minores Wratislavienses, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, and Fernabucco. She has performed at many festivals, among them the International Wratislavia Cantans Festival, Forum Musicum, Bach-Fest Leipzig, the International Bach Festival in Świdnica, Usedomer Musikfestival, Jazztopad Festival, and the Ohrid Summer Festival. She has participated in the recording of numerous albums, many of which have received the Fryderyk Award or been nominated for it.
She is a DAAD scholarship recipient (2008), laureate of the Wrocław Music Award (2007), the 7th edition of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage’s “Young Poland” scholarship programme (2010), and a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2021). She was artistic director of the Forgotten City 2016 project, carried out by the Witold Lutosławski National Forum of Music in Wrocław as part of the European Capital of Culture 2016 programme.
Maria Plucińska
A student at the Universität der Künste in Berlin in the baroque oboe class of Prof. Xenia Löffler, and a graduate of the I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in the historical oboe class of Dr. Marek Niewiedzał. She has won prizes in both solo and chamber music competitions. She performs both in Poland and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She collaborates with numerous early music ensembles, including the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Altberg Ensemble, Collegium 1704, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, FAMD Orchestra, Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, Warsaw Harmony, and the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra. She has performed under the direction of Justin Doyle, Martin Gester, Paul Goodwin, Sigiswald Kuijken, Václav Luks, Dorothee Oberlinger, Enrico Onofri, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Shunske Sato and Dirk Vermeulen. In 2023, the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble’s album, recorded with her participation, received the Fryderyk Award by the Phonographic Academy in the category Album of the Year – Early Music. She is a co-founder of the Crossroads Ensemble, which won the baroque chamber ensemble competition Nuovi Talenti in 2024.
She has further developed her artistry at masterclasses with artists such as Alfredo Bernardini, Paolo Grazzi, Jörg Halubek, Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen, Magdalena Karolak, Jasu Moisio, Markus Möllenbeck, Zbigniew Pilch, and Jana Semerádová, as well as by taking part in the Internationale Bachakademie and Bachwoche in Stuttgart. She has been awarded scholarships by the Theresia Orchestra and the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO).
Mirosław Feldgebel
A graduate of the Instrumental Faculty in the piano class, he also studied at the Faculty of Theory, Composition, and Conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. A highly regarded pianist and chamber musician, he has partnered with the most distinguished Polish and international artists. He is a laureate of several international piano competitions, including first prize at the Torneo Internazionale di Musica in Turin and third prize at the XII Concorso Musicale Europeo Città di Moncalieri. For many years he has dedicated himself to performing early music on historical instruments — harpsichord, medieval, Renaissance, and baroque harps, as well as early classical and Romantic fortepianos. He has performed in many prestigious concert halls across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, including the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Wiener Musikverein, the Vredenburg in Utrecht, Omotesando in Tokyo, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Witold Lutosławski Studio, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. He has taken part in numerous international music festivals, including Wratislavia Cantans, the Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, Warsaw Autumn, the International Festival of Piano Duets in Šiauliai in Lithuania, and the Holland Festival. The artist is a co-founder of the Gang Tango quintet, rooted in the tradition of the Argentine Orquesta Típica and taking direct inspiration from Astor Piazzolla’s original ensemble. Gang Tango maintains an ongoing collaboration with Roby Lakatos, a world-renowned violin virtuoso, with whom he recorded the album Tangos of the World. His teaching is as highly regarded as his performing career.
Marcin Bajon
A versatile double bassist and gambist with wide-ranging musical interests. He completed his master’s degree in the double bass class of Prof. Piotr Czerwiński at the I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, followed by studies in the Viennese double bass class and the viola da gamba class of Prof. Kazimierz Pyzik. He has refined his artistry under the guidance of numerous masterclass leaders, including Krzysztof Firlus, Eugeniusz Kołosow, Janusz Widzyk, Martin Gester, Ageet Zweistra, and Paul Esswood. As a chamber musician and orchestral player, he performs both early music and contemporary music. He has appeared at numerous festivals — including Beethoven non plus ultra, Na Gotyckim Szlaku, the Kromer Biecz Festival, and the Poznań Musical Spring — and has contributed to a wide range of album recordings. He has collaborated with many ensembles, including Accademia dell’Arcadia, Arte Dei Suonatori, Consortium Sedinum, FAMD Orchestra, the Lausitzer Baroque Ensemble, and the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra.
Aleksandra Owczarek
Aleksandra Owczarek is a graduate of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, where she studied Baroque violin with Prof. Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch and Dr. Zbigniew Pilch. She trained in solo and chamber music with, among others, Antoinette Lohmann, Jorge Jiménez, Bruno Cocset and Aureliusz Goliński. In 2019, together with harpsichordist Klaudia Rogała, she won the Grand Prix at the Wanda Landowska Harpsichord Competition in Ruvo di Puglia (Italy). In August 2022, she toured Europe with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra as part of John Malkovich’s production of The Infernal Comedy. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Owczarek | Łoboda Duo. In 2023, the duo received the WDR 3 Radio Special Prize at the H.I.F. Biber International Competition in Sankt Florian (Austria), as well as first prize at the 3rd KraCamera International Chamber Music Competition. At the 6th VirtuClassic International Competition, she won first prize in the violin category. In 2024, she was awarded the City of Kraków Creative Scholarship.
Ewa Pilarska-Banaszak
Ewa Pilarska-Banaszak – a graduate of the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, here she studied viola, Baroque viola and Baroque violin. She is currently a PhD student in musicology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She specialises in historically informed performance, with a particular focus on the viola d’amore and research on musical sources from Greater Poland. She performs as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician on the violin, viola and viola d’amore. She collaborates with ensembles including Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense, Arte dei Suonatori, Altberg Ensemble, the Orchestra of the Early Music Academy Foundation in Szczecin, and Consortium Sedinum. As a viola d’amore soloist, she has performed solo parts in works by Vivaldi, Bach and Telemann, as well as twentieth-century repertoire. She is the soloist on the album 20th-Century Music for Viola d’amore, featuring world premiere recordings. She has participated in numerous recordings, including for the CD Accord and Dux labels. She is the president of the HALO! Association and the artistic director of the Capella Musica Gnesnensis orchestra, dedicated to promoting historical repertoire from the Archdiocesan Archives in Gniezno.
Anna Schall
Anna Schall was born 1984 in Emmendingen, and through playing the recorder, she began
to be interested in early music from a young age, which then led her to take up the
cornetto. She studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Bruce Dickey (cornetto) and
Conrad Steinmann (recorder), finishing in 2008 with a Diploma for Early Music. She then
undertook further advanced studies on the cornetto with Gebhard David and William
Dongois at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen. Anna Schall is now in demand as a
cornetto player across Europe, playing with several well known ensembles, including
Oltremontano, Weser-Renaissance, Musica Fiata, Freiburger Barockorchester,
Lauttenkompagney, Dresdner Kammerchor and more.
Karolina Szewczykowska
Karolina Szewczykowska – cellist and gambist. She maintains an active concert schedule, focusing on collaborations with ensembles and orchestras performing early music on period instruments. She is a permanent member of the Early Music Ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera – Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense. Since 2013, she has also been a member of the early music ensemble ALTA. She regularly performs as a guest artist with many renowned early music ensembles, including the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Academy of Early Music Foundation (FAMD.pl), Consortium Sedinum, Altberg Ensemble, Filatura di Musica, Royal Baroque Ensemble, La Tempesta, Capella Cracoviensis, Il Tempo, and Talenti Vulcanici della Pietà de’ Turchini (Naples). She is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where she studied cello under Tomasz Strahl, Andrzej Wróbel, and Rafał Kwiatkowski; the Academy of Music in Poznań, where she studied Baroque cello under Jarosław Thiel; and the Academy of Music in Łódź, where she studied viola da gamba under Justyna Młynarczyk.
proMODERN
In over a decade of its activity, proMODERN has established itself as one of the leading ensembles specialising in vocal music performance. The vocal sextet has released four award-winning albums and recorded two further projects, including numerous premiere recordings. The ensemble has premiered several dozen works and collaborated with leading Polish orchestras, including NOSPR at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, and Sinfonia Varsovia. It has recorded television recitals for Polish National Television and radio concerts for Polish Radio, and has performed at major festivals and leading cultural institutions in Poland and abroad. proMODERN has received five Fryderyk Awards, the most prestigious honours of the Polish music industry: in 2015 for their debut album Where Are You: Pieces from Warsaw (including Best Recording of Polish Music), in 2018 for proMODERN Shakespired, and in 2020 for Comfort Zone, both in the Contemporary Music Album of the Year category. A work by Philip Lawson, commissioned especially for the ensemble, reached over 20,000 streams on Spotify within two weeks of its release. The group was nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award 2018 in the Discovery of the Year category for its performance of Stimmung by Karlheinz Stockhausen at the KODY Festival in Lublin. Their recording of this work, released by Polish Radio, was nominated for a Fryderyk Award in 2020. In the same year, at the invitation of the Polish ambassadors to Rome and the Vatican, the ensemble performed during papal celebrations in Italy.
