photo Łukasz Rajchert

 

Lutosławski Quartet

 

Jakub Jakowicz: 1st violin

Marcin Markowicz: 2nd violin

Artur Rozmysłowicz: viola

Maciej Młodawski: cello

 

The ensemble was founded in 2007. It has appeared at many festivals, including: Wratislavia Cantans, Ensemble, Musica Polonica Nova, Jazztopad, Chain, the Lutosławski Forum at the Polish National Philharmonic, the Klara Festival in Brussels, and the Ankara Music Festival in Turkey.

The quartet has given concerts with Bruno Canino, Paul Gulda,, the Silesian Quartet, the Royal String Quartet, Tomasz Strahl, Ryszard Groblewski, an English oboist Nicholas Daniel, the world-renowned pianist and Chopin Competition prize-winner – Eugen Indijc, an extraordinary clarinetist Michel Lethiec, as well as outstanding jazz players such as Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor and Uri Caine. They have also performed Bohuslav Martinu’s and Arnold Schoenberg’s concertos for quartet and orchestra under Maestro Jacek Kaspszyk’s baton. At the invitation of the Polish Institute in Brussels in December 2010, they appeared in the Brussels Opera with a concert closing the International Chopin Year.

In 2012 the ensemble was invited at the Contemporary Music Festival in Greece.

Together with the guest musicians – Krzysztof Jakowicz and Andrzej Bauer – they have recorded world’s first album featuring Witold Lutosławski’s chamber works for the CD Accord label. The CD received the 2009 Fryderyk Award nomination.

In 2010 they recorded Karol Szymanowski’s, Dmitri Shostakovich’s and Marcin Markiewicz’s quartets for Lutosławski Quartet’s debut solo album.

The ensemble records a CD featuring pieces for a quartet and bassoon with Katarzyna Zybel – a prize-winner of numerous international competitions, also the ensemble records the complete of string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz for the Naxos label.

The Lutosławski Quartet performs contemporary music as well as recently commissioned pieces, and focuses on popularizing Polish music, including works by Lutosławski, Bacewicz, Szymanowski, and also compositions by one of the group members – Marcin Markowicz. An ensemble made up of versatile and open-minded artists, they blend the contemporary repertoire with the gems of classical, Romantic and jazz music. Their future plans include further recording projects that promote Polish music.

The quartet works as one of the resident ensembles at the National Forum of Music.

 

Jakub Jakowicz

A violinist born in Warsaw in 1981, he studied violin with his father, Krzysztof Jakowicz, also at the F. Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. He was also Tadeusz Wroński’s last student. He is a first-prize winner of violin competitions including the ones in Lublin in Poland (1993), Wattrelos in France (1995), and Takasaki in Japan (1999). In 2001 he was one of three prize-winners at the International Tribune of Young Artists in Bratislava organized under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union and the International Music Council (UNESCO). In 2002 he received the Polish-Japanese Foundation award for the most promising young generation violinist. He won the 2003 Passport Award of the Polityka magazine. He was also awarded the 2007 Orpheus Prize at the Warsaw Autumn Festival.

Jakub Jakowicz has been giving concerts since he was 11. He has played with all Poland’s leading orchestras. His 1994 debut in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with orchestras from Bydgoszcz, Krakow and Szczecin, Poland, has resulted in inviting him to perform with the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra. In 1998 Krzysztof Penderecki invited him to play at the Penderecki Festival in Kraków, where he performed ‘Capriccio per violino e orchestra’ under Jerzy Maksymiuk.

Ever since his Munich Philharmonic debut under Pinchas Steinberg in 2001, when he performed Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, the violinist has made solo appearances with many renowned orchestras such as the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, the Orquesta Nacional in Madrid, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo. He has worked with conductors including Pinchas Steinberg, Jerzy Semkow, Antoni Wit, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jacek Kaspszyk, Yan Pascal Tortellier, Marek Pijarowski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Agnieszka Duczmal, Walter Weller, Heinz Wallberg, Kirill Karabits, Michail Jurovski.

Being a chamber musician, he has long played in a violin duo with his father, Krzysztof. Since 2000 he has been playing with Bartosz Bednarczyk, with whom he recorded CDs: ‘Subito’ (Polish Radio), ‘Beethoven Violin Sonatas’ (Subito Records), and Lutosławski’s ‘Partita’ (CD Accord). Since 2006 he has been a member of the Zehetmair Quartett, an ensemble founded by the Austrian violinist and conductor Thomas Zehetmaira. Featuring one concert programme a year, the ensemble plays most works from memory. Jakowicz has played with the ensemble at numerous venues including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Santory Hall in Tokyo, the Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, the Viennese Konzerthaus, the Zankel Hall and Y Hall in New York.

The ensemble’s CD (ECM label) featuring Bartok’s Quartet No. 5 and Hindemith’s Quartet No. 4 received the Diapason d’Or de l’Anneé 2007 Award. Jakowicz has also played with musicians including Heinz Holliger, Paul Gulda, Jan Krzysztof Broja, Krzysztof Jabłoński, Maciej Grzybowski, Michel Lethiec, Håkan Rosengren, Olga Pasiecznik, Ruth Kilius, Ursula Smith, Daniel Mueller-Schott, Andrzej Bauer, Rafał Kwiatkowski, Karol Marianowski. Since 2004 he has been teaching violin at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He plays an Italian violin passed on to him by professor Tadeusz Wroński. In 2009 he started working as first violinist with the Lutosławski Quartet ensemble.

 

Marcin Markowicz

The Wrocław Philharmonic concertmaster and Lutosławski Quartet’s second violinist, he has been the Artistic Director of the International Chamber Arts Festival Ensemble since 2005. Since 2009 he has been guest concertmaster of the Beethoven Academy Orchestra in Kraków.

He has studied with Christiane Edinger in Lübeck, Roman Lasocki and Krzysztof Jakowicz in Warsaw, and Roman Totenberg in Boston. He has taken part in numerous master classes, working with artists including Ida Haendel, Sherdan Lupu, Grigori Zhislin, and members of the Juilliard Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, as well as the Silesian Quartet and the Szymanowski Quartet.

He has worked as a soloists with Polish orchestras including the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice under conductors such as Jacek Kaspszyk and Michał Klauza, as well as with the Sudeten Philharmonic, and ensembles from Kraków and Solingen.

A soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared at festivals including those in Bayreuth, Ratzeburg, La Ville d'Eu, as well as the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the ‘Chain Festival’, Turning Sounds in Warsaw, Wratislavia Cantans, Musica Polonica Nova, the Klara Festival in Brussels, Ankara Festival and the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the USA. In 2005–2006 he was a member of the Amadé Kammerphilharmonie in Aachen. He works with artists such as Bruno Canino, Paul Gulda, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Michel Lethiec, Bartłomiej Nizioł, Tomasz Strahl, Agata Szymczewska and the Silesian Quartet. He has given concerts in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Austria, the USA, Holland, Belgium, Russia and the RSA.

In 2009–2010 he taught violin at the Music Academy in Katowice, Poland. He gives violin and chamber music master classes in Zakopane and Wałbrzych, Poland, and in Matera, Italy.

He holds grants of the Polish Culture Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, as well as the Saul Cohen Foundation and the Roman Totenberg Foundation. He has recorded for labels such as the Polish Radio and CD Accord.

As a composer he received in 1999 a special award at the A. Panufnik Composers’ Competition in Kraków. His works have been performed at festivals in Poland, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Holland and the USA. His String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned and premiered by the Silesian Quartet in 2009. He has written theatre as well as film music for M. Brama’s “August 13th 1944” and A. Cassianov’s “Boiling Water”.

 

Artur Rozmysłowicz

The artist was born in Warsaw, where he studied viola at the F. Chopin Music Academy with professor Błażej Sroczyński. In 2004–2006 he received a grant of the Guidall School of Music and Drama in London in Jacek Glickman’s master class.

He is a resident soloist of the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra. A member of the Lutosławski Quartet, his CD was nominated for the 2009 Fryderyk Awards. He has taken part in numerous master classes including those in Łańcut (Poland), Pueblo (Mexico), London, Ottawa (Canada), the Książ Castle.

He mastered his skills with artists such as P. Zukerman, M. Tree, S. Kamasa, S. Popov, members of the Guarneri Quartet, the Takács Quartet, the Heine Quartet, and the Silesian Quartet.

The festivals he has been invited to include the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the International Festival of Chamber Music ‘Ensemble’, Wratislavia Cantans, the Beethoven Festival, the Organ Festivals in Szczecin and Zakopane, Poland, the ‘Chain’ Festival, La Frentana, Jazztopad, the Pacific Music Festival (Sapporo – Japan), the Paxos International Music Festival (Greece), the ‘Music on the Heights’ Festival, Chopin and his Europe, Spaces of Music, Tansmania, the Klara Festival in Brussels. As a chamber musician he has appeared at theatre festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Sesc Belenzinho in Sao Paolo.

He has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Basque Orchestra, Sinfonia Juventus, the Polish Radio Orchestra, the World Orchestra For Peace. He has given concerts with distinguished conductors such as Jackek Kaspszyk, Gabriel Chmura, Michael Tilson Thomas, Valery Gergiev, sir Colin Davis, Yakov Kreizberg. He has appeared in most of Europe’s countries, as well as in Asia and both Americas.

 

Maciej Młodawski

Born in Warsaw in 1981, he is the Wrocław Philharmonic cello leader and Lutosławski Quartet’s member. He studied cello at the F. Chopin Academy in Warsaw with professors Tomasz Strahl and Andrzej Bauer (first-class degree). He was also a guest student at the Hochschule für Musik Augsburg with Julius Berg and Sebastian Hess. He has developed his skills in numerous master classes with artists including Miloš Sadlo, Victoria Yagling, Claus Reichardt, Kazimierz Michalik, Stanisław Firlej, Andrzej Orkisz, Johannes Goritzki, and as a chamber musician with Roman Totenberg, Christiane Edinger, Piotr Reichert, Jerzy Marchwiński, Maja Nosowska, Krystyna Borucińska, Paul Gulda, and members of the Silesian Quartet. He is a prize-winner of the D. Danczowski Cello Competition in Poznań and the Chamber Music Competition in Łódź. As a soloist he appeared with the Orchestra of the Wrocław Philharmonic, where he opened the 2008–2009 season under the baton of Jacek Kaspszyk. He has also premiered Ståle Kleiberg’s “Dopo” for cello and orchestra in Poland. He gives concerts in Poland and abroad as a member of the Lutosławski Quartet and in a duo with Agnieszka Przemyk-Bryła. A soloist and chamber musician, he has taken part in festivals including Wratislavia Cantans, Holland Music Sessions, International Chamber Arts Festival Ensemble in Książ, and the Klara Festival in Brussels. He has given concerts in many cities in Poland, as well as in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Turkey and Italy.

 

 

photo Łukasz Rajchert

 

 

Repertoire

 

Works for string quartet:

G. Bacewicz – String Quartets

T. Baird – String Quartet (1957)

L. van Beethoven – String Quartets

J. Brahms – String Quartet

C. Debussy – String Quartet

A. Dvorak – String Quartet in F Major „American”

F.J. Haydn – String Quartets

A. Lasoń – String Quartet No. 5 (2004)

M. Lorenz – String Quartet (2012)

W. Lutosławski – String Quartet (1964)

M. Markowicz – String Quartets

S. Moniuszko – String Quartets

W.A. Mozart – String Quartets

P. Mykietyn – String Quartet No. 2 (2006)

A. Piazzolla – Original and arranged works

M. Ravel – String Quartet

D. Shostakovich – String Quartets

K. Szymanowski – String Quartets

K. Wheeler – String Quartet

 

Other compilations:

J. Brahms – String Sextets

J. Brahms – Clarinette Quintet

B. Britten – Phantasy for Oboe Quartet, Op. 2

E. Chausson – Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet

A. Dvorak – Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, B. 155

G. Mahler – Piano Quartet

M. Markowicz – Basoon Quintet

B. Martinů – Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra

F. Mendelssohn – Octet in E flat major, Op. 20

W.A. Mozart – Viola Quintet

W.A. Mozart – Piano Quartet

W.A. Mozart – Flute and Oboe Quartets

A. Schönberg – Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra

F. Schubert – String Quintet in C major, Op. 163

R. Schumann – Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44

D. Shostakovich – String Octet

D. Shostakovich – Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57

J. Zarębski – Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 34

 

 

 

 

Listen to Lutosławski Quartet

Marcin Markowicz - Kwartet Smyczkowy nr 3, cz. Allegro (fragment) [4.9 Mb]

Joseph Haydn - Kwartet Smyczkowy C-dur op. 76 nr 3, cz.II Poco Adagio. Cantabile [2.9 Mb]

Astor Piazzolla - Four for Tango [3.2 Mb]

 

Manager:

Katarzyna Markowicz (+48) 509 097 580 info@lutoslawskiquartet.com www.lutoslawskiquartet.com

 

 

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