Performers

A conductor educated in Beirut (music conservatory and philosophy at the Lebanese University) and in Poland (choral conducting with Stanisław Krawczyński at the Academy of Music in Kraków and conducting with Marek Pijarowski at the Wrocław Academy).

Jazz singer, arranger, composer, and producer, one of jazz scene’s most fascinating figures, highly praised for the style and technique of her interpretations, which combine freedom with precision. She performed at song and jazz festivals throughout Poland in the 1970s and 80s. Following the release of her debut album Sunrise Sunset (1988) she left for the United States, where she worked with Michał Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak, among others, as well as taking up studies at Boston’s Berklee College of Music (completed in 1992). Two years later she moved to Chicago.

Founded by a group of graduates from the Academy of Music in Katowice and by Marek Moś, the Orchestra plays music from the classics to contemporary, with particular emphasis on Polish music. They have recorded numerous albums of music by Grażyna Bacewicz, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Witold Lutosławski.

He studies with Jerzy Jurek at Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin Academy (now – University) of Music and on a French government scholarship with Max Bonnay in Paris. Since 2016 he has held the post of vice-chancellor of his alma mater.

A New York composer of ambient music, who has recently resided in California. Despite his classical music education he has focused for more than 30 years on various types of electronic and experimental music. Original video projections are another major area of his activity as an artist.

This versatile cellist feels equally at home in classical as in improvised music. He graduated from Kazimierz Michalik’s class at the Łódź Academy of Music. As a Witold Lutosławski scholarship holder, he studied with William Pleeth in London.

Polish accordionist and composer, founder and leader of Bester Quartet; graduate of Cracow’s Academy of Music; prize-winner in numerous nation- wide and international accordion competitions. His individual style, characterised by a broad colouristic palette, technical freedom and expressive quality, results from a combination of many musical styles with a classical education and improvisation.

Founded on Jarosław Bester’s initiative in 1997 as The Cracow Klezmer Band, it consists of four eminent instrumentalists with classical and jazz education, playing a stylistically highly varied repertoire which assimilates elements of classical, jazz, avant-garde, and contemporary chamber music. Improvisation plays a major role in their work as a form-building element and the band’s musical axis.