He started to play violin when he was five years old. In 1993, he graduated with merit from Jadwiga Kaliszewska's violin department at the I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. He participated in violin masterclasses in Poland and abroad organised by Pierre Amoyal, Zachar Bron, Michael Frischenschlager, Mauricio Fuks and Ruggiero Ricci.
Bartłomiej Nizioł has won many prestigious international violin competitions: in Lublin in 1988, in Adelaide and at the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań in 1991, in Pretoria and at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brussels in 1992, and at the International Marguerite Long and Jacques Thibaud Violin Competition in Paris in 1993.
The artist has successfully performed at many festivals across Europe, Asia and the Americas. He performed in Paris (Salle Pleyel), London (Barbican Centre), Berlin (Philharmonic), Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus), Moscow (Music Conservatory) and Tokyo (Suntory Hall). He has collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin, Jan Krenz, Marek Janowski, David Zinman, Heinrich Schiff, Grzegorz Nowak, Jacek Kaspszyk, Andrey Boreyko, Yoav Talmi, Philippe Entremont, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Berlin Philharmonic, NDR Symphony Orchestra, SWR Studio Kaiserslautern, English Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Helvetica, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, New Tokyo Philharmonic and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded for such recording studios as DUX, CD Accord, REM and Sonoris, receiving nominations and awards (twice – in 1996 and 2005 - the phonographic industry award FRYDERYK for recording works of Henryk Wieniawski and Grażyna Bacewicz for DUX Recordings). In 2007 he recorded all of Eugene Ysaÿe's Sonatas for Solo Violin.
Bartłomiej Nizioł was the concertmaster at the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich in the years from 1997 to 2003. Since 2003 he has been the concertmaster at the Orchester der Oper in Zürich. He is also the leader of the first violin section in Stradivari Quartett (established in 2007), whose all musicians play on Antoni Stradivarius's instruments. Their first concert took place in the famous concert halls of Zürich, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg, and Lucerne.
Nizioł was a juror at the international Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznań and the vice-president of Henryk Wieniawski Music Society in Poznań. Since September 2008 he has been a professor of violin at Hochschule der Künste in Bern.
He currently plays on Antonio Stradivarius's Aurea from 1715 and Giuseppe Guarneri's del Gesù, and has lived in Switzerland since 1995.
Artist's website: www.bartekniziol.com
Author: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Związek Kompozytorów Polskich, May 2003, updated on November 2009, translated by AW, November 2016
