Izabella Szałaj-Zimak – 1st violin, Elwira Przybyłowska – 2nd violin, Marek Czech – viola, Michał Pepol – cello

The international career of the Warsaw ensemble began with an invitation to the BBC New Generation Artists programme. Since being nominated for the 2006 Royal Philharmonic Society award, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust award and laurels at the Kuhmo and Banff competitions, the quartet has been a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including. The quartet is a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including London’s Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts, Vienna’s and Berlin’s Konzerthaus, as well as festivals such as the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Schleswig Holstein and the Philips Collection in Washington D.C. as part of the Andrzej Markowski Foundation. March 2013 will see the release of the ensemble’s next album with the string quartets of Witold Lutosławski and Krzysztof Penderecki (Hyperion).

Mezzo-soprano, graduate of the class of Professor Jerzy Artysz at the Academy of Music in Warsaw. Laureate of national and international competitions. Since 1999 she has been a soloist of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. She has performed at, among others, the Paris Opera, the Geneva Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, opera houses in Cologne, Luzern, Antwerp, Starsburg, the Grand Theatre Aix en Provence, Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Cite de la musique in Paris, festivals in Salzburg, Warsaw Autumn, Schwetzingenfestspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Holland festival, Maerz festival Berlin and many others creating masterpieces of baroque, classical and contemporary music in collaboration with artists such as Attilio Cremonesi, Andreas Spering, Jean- Christophe Spinosi, Michael Tabachnik, Tito Ceccherini, Beat Furrer, Friedeman Layer. Awarded by Arte for her recording of songs by Karol Szymanowski.

Adam Golka (b. 1987) is an American pianist of Polish descent who, despite his young age, has managed to win two of the most prestigious awards a pianist can receive in the USA: Gilmore Young Artist Award (2008) and the Max I. Allen Classical Fellowship Award of the American Pianists Association (2009). He won first place in the Second Shanghai International Piano Competition. He is a pupil of the legendary Leon Fleischer. He has performed in the most important concert halls of the world (Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw) and at significant festivals (Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Newport Music Festival). His repertoire includes over 20 piano concertos and 20 recital programmes (including all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonatas). It does not forget its Polish roots: it performs works by Witold Lutosławski and appears at the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki Zdrój.

Ensemble La Fenice is an early music ensemble founded in 1990 by zinc player Jean Tubéry. The zinnia is, broadly speaking, a curved flute with a trumpet mouthpiece, which enjoyed triumphs in the late Renaissance and early Baroque as the instrument most similar in sound to the human voice. Ensemble La Fenice takes its name from a work entitled Phoenix by G. M. Cesare – also a Tinkerer, but born in 1590, 400 years before the ensemble was founded. La Fenice specialises in 16th-century Italian music: Monteverdi’s Vespers, Gabrieli’s polychoral motets etc., but performs a very wide repertoire. The ensemble has twice won first place in international competitions (Bruges 1990 and Malmo 1992) and has for years been invited to all the major early music festivals: in Basel, Bremen, Bruges, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo, Vienna, as well as in the USA, South America and Japan. All the musicians who make up Ensemble La Fenice are outstanding virtuosos of their instruments. The ensemble’s recordings have won the highest phonographic honours:Choc du Monde de la Musique, Diapason d’Or, 10/10 Répertoire, 5 étoiles.

Jean Tubéry studied the recorder at the conservatoires of Toulouse and Amsterdam, but devoted himself to playing the zinfandel – a much-loved cross between woodwind and brass instruments in the 16th and 17th centuries, which requires the musician’s trumpet player’s brawn and the flutist’s agility. Tubéry has performed with the most prominent early music ensembles: Les Arts Florissants, Collegium Vocale de Gand, Hesperion XXI, Huelgas Ensemble, Cantus Cölln, La Petite Bande, Il Giardino Armonico etc. He has recorded for record labels such as Ricercar, Harmonia Mundi, Sony Classical, Virgin, Opus 111, Naïve. Each of his concerts and discs is a major artistic event, which the specialist press then describes as “the most successful project in the world of early music”, “the sensation of the season” or “the most beautiful baroque concert”.