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Zarębski Piano Duo--Grzegorz Mania and Piotr Różański
The Zarębski Piano Duo--Grzegorz Mania and Piotr Różański—presents a lecture-recital of music by contemporary Polish women composers.
PROGRAM
VAN… : Hanna Kulenty (b. 1961)
Minimal Prelude : Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk (b. 1987)
“Dance No. 1” from 3 Dances in Balkan Rhythms - Tribute to Béla Bartók: Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska (b. 1968)
Cinderella: 7 Aphorisms: Katarzyna Kwiecień-Długosz (b. 1978)
Sonatina: Katarzyna Kwiecień-Długosz
Esitanza : Joanna Bruzdowicz (1943-2021).
PROGRAM NOTES
Piano pieces for four hands by contemporary Polish women composers
The idea behind the lecture-recital program is to popularize piano duets for four hands, written by contemporary Polish women composers. This type of chamber ensemble has an important representation in the works of many Polish women authors, including Hanna Kulenty, Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk, Katarzyna Kwiecień-Długosz, Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska, and Joanna Bruzdowicz. The lecture-recital will showcase niche, rarely presented pieces which are a compilation of styles, musical forms, and heterogeneous artistic experiences of individual women composers. The audience will have the opportunity to listen and discuss the following compositions: VAN... by Hanna Kulenty (b. 1961), Minimal Prelude by Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk (b. 1987), Dance No. 1 from the cycle 3 Dances in Balkan Rhythms – Tribute to Béla Bartók by Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska (b. 1968), Cinderella: 7 Aphorisms and Sonatina by Katarzyna Kwiecień-Długosz (b. 1978), Esitanza by Joanna Bruzdowicz (1943-2021). The message of this performance is perfectly in line with the trend of restoring women composers to their rightful place in the history of Polish music, as well as emphasizing the importance of their work in the ongoing development of the domestic piano literature for four hands.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Piotr Różański graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music in Kraków, majoring in piano (in the class of Ewa Bukojemska and Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń) and chamber music. Following his Doctor of Arts degree in 2014 and a post-doctoral degree in 2019, Różański was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the Academy of Music in Kraków and is on the faculty of the Chopin Music School in Kraków.
He is a top prize winner of international piano and chamber music competitions, including the 2006 Chopin National Piano Competition, the 2008 YAMAHA Foundation Scholarship Piano Competition, the 2010 Independent International Competition for Musical Individualities, as well as semi-finalist in competitions in the United States, Slovakia and Austria. He has performed throughout Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, France, Great Britain, Lithuania, Ukraine, Israel and the United States.
Piotr Różański’s CD albums include Schumann & Prokofiew and Mieczysław Weinberg: Sonatas for Violin and Piano (recorded with Maria Sławek), as well as Poland for 4 Hands (recorded with Grzegorz Mania). He has lectured at international conferences in Kraków, Katowice, Łódź, Gdańsk, Olsztyn, Poznań, Tallin, Moscow, Guimarães, and authored articles on piano literature in addition to serving as editor of collective publications. Różański’s interests include piano literature discoveries and pioneering performances of piano music for the left hand. He also collaborates with PWM Editions on new music publications, including editing piano works by Roman Ryterband, a selection of duets for piano four hands, and a selection of piano pieces for the left hand.
Grzegorz Mania graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music in Kraków (where he studied piano under Stefan Wojtas) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (where he was tutored by Martin Roscoe, Charles Owen and Caroline Palmer). He also read law at Jagiellonian University, and obtained a PhD for a dissertation about music and copyright law. In 2019 he obtained a post-doctoral degree in the Academy of Music in Kraków.
He works extensively as a recitalist, an orchestral soloist and a chamber musician and is a member of the Piano Cooperative and the Extra Sounds Ensemble. Mr Mania is a versatile pianist, regularly duetting with Katarzyna Budnik, violist and Piotr Różański, pianist. He has appeared at international festivals throughout Poland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Austria, Italy, Norway, Iceland, Vietnam, Israel, the United States of America, Cyprus, and Ukraine, and has been a finalist in a number of international solo and chamber competitions from 2002 to the present.
A co-founder and president of the Polish Chamber Musicians’ Association, Mania also co-authored an innovative, 3-part sight-reading handbook for pianists. PWM Editions recently published Mania’s definitive volume on music and authors’ rights, as well as his selection of works for piano four hands for intermediate and advanced pianists.
Currently, Grzegorz Mania divides his time between professorship at the Feliks Nowowiejski’s Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, lecturing law at the music academies in Kraków and Wrocław and rehearsing chamber music programs all over Poland. He is also an artistic director of chamber music festivals in Kraków, Rzeszów, Zielona Góra and Gdańsk.