Barbara Kubiak
A recital by soprano Barbara Kubiak and pianist Sławomir Dobrzański presented compositions for voice and piano. Featured pieces by Karol Szymanowski were inspired by Slavic cultures, and included the composer's Etudes, which placed Szymanowski at the centre of the European vanguard
The following of Szymanowski's works were performed:
Etude B flat Minor, Op. 4 No. 3
Four Polish Dances for piano, Op. 47
Song "Daleko został cały świat", Op.2
The Swan song, Op. 7
Roksana Song from the opera "King Roger"
Twenty Mazurkas, Op. 50 (No. 1, No. 13, No. 14, No. 18)
Twelve Kurpie Songs, Op. 58
Twelve Etudes for piano, Op. 33
Performers:
Barbara Kubiak – soprano
Sławomir Dobrzański – piano
Barbara Kubiak graduated from the The Jan Paderewski Music Academy in Poznań and went on to make her stage debut in Poznań's Great Theatre as the First Dame-role in Mozart’s "Magic Flute" in 1986. Since 1987 she has been permanently associated with this opera. She also performs abroad, however, taking the role of Abigaille in Giuseppe Verdi’s "Nabucco" at the Beijing Music Festival and Aphrodite at the Opera Festival in Pafos in Cyprus. She cooperates with the Great Theatres in Poznań and Łódź, the Wrocław Opera and the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk – frequently traveling abroad with these operas to give performances in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France and Great Britain. She has recorded two operas by Verdi: "Nabucco" and "Il Trovatore" as well as Szymanowski’s "Stabat Mater" and Mahler’s 8th Symphony.
A versatile pianist and teacher, Sławomir Dobrzański frequently performs as soloist and chamber musician across Europe, South America, China, and throughout the United States. As a soloist, he has performed with such orchestras as the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the "Leopoldinum" Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, "Connecticut Virtuosi" Chamber Orchestra, the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, and the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. Dobrzański has recorded solo and chamber music by Witold Lutoslawski, Karol Szymanowski, Fryderyk Chopin, Stefan Kisielewski, Artur Malawski (complete piano solo music), Feliks Rybicki, Carl Tausig, and Johannes Brahms for Polish Radio and Television. He is also an author of the first English language biography of the acclaimed 19th century pianist and composer Maria Agata Wołowska-Szymanowska, published in 2006 by the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Currently, Dobrzański is Associate Professor of piano and piano literature at Kansas State University, where he also serves as the Chair of Keyboard Studies. He is a graduate of the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.
'The Egg', more formally known as the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is one of the most spectacular examples of Beijing's ultra-modern architecture. It contains an Opera House, Concert Hall, Theatre and 'The Fifth Space' which houses a Resource Center as well as other smaller halls and galleries, assigned for chamber music and artistic events.
Date: 5th of August, 2011 (8pm)
Venue: Resource Center at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing
Organised by: Fundacja Muzyczna APOLLO, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
For more information, see:
www.szymanowskifestival.pl
www.sinfoniettapolonia.pl
www.cheungchauconductor.org
www.atmatrio.org