Małgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera / Andrzej Karałow
fot. Magdalena Hałas
VIOLIN-PIANO DUO focused on XX and XXI-century music.
Together they released “Life & Beyond” album with music by B. Bartók, G. Crumb, W. Lutosławski and O. Messiaen
The album was nominated to annual Fryderyki 2024 award in Chamber Music: Duo category
LISTEN TO "LIFE & BEYOND" (STREAMING)
OUR REPERTOIRE
Bela Bartók – Sonata for violin and piano n. 1, Sz. 75
Maurice Ravel – Sonata for violin and piano nr 2 G-dur, M. 77
Andrzej Karałow – Sonata for violin and piano (2013)
George Crumb – Four Nocturnes (Night Music II)
Messiaen – from Quatuor pour la fin du Temps – VIII: Louange à l’Immortalité de Jésus
Leoš Janáček – Violin Sonata
Witold Lutosławski – Subito
Witold Lutosławski – Partita
Morton Feldman – Vertical Thoughts 2
Mieczysław Wajnberg – Nocturne from 3 pieces for violin and piano
Max Bruch – Kol Nidrei (transcription for violin and piano) and other transcriptions
‘Let us examine green. Let us go together / to see it all unstable and becoming / violent and testing gravity / so natural in its hunger.’ This beautiful passage from Peter Gizzi’s poem Human Memory Is Organic comes to my mind while I am listening to the album by Małgorzata Wasiucionek and Andrzej Karałow. An album with a—to put it bluntly—total title, for can you imagine a world more capacious than life and what is beyond it? It is only Sartre’s Being and Nothingness that could be a worthy opponent.
We are able to observe manifestations of life, to determine its parameters, to bring together everything we see into certain quantifiable formulas; nevertheless, we have no idea what life is in its essence. To the discovery of life’s deepest mystery these parameters mean little more than a silent score before someone performs it; before it is lived out. We can, of course, study harmonic structures or analyse dynamic and agogic changes. Music, however, is more than the sum of the components written down on paper—it goes beyond itself, and in many ways; it is transcendent.
from booklet note by Maciej Papierski
fot. Magdalena Hałas
WHO ARE WE
fot. Magdalena Hałas
A graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where she received a degree with honors in the studio of Prof. Roman Lasocki, Małgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera has also trained with Pierre Amoyal at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg. Having begun her musical education in Jelenia Góra under the tutelage of Ludmiła Sołowiewicz, Wasiucionek-Potera now holds a Habilitated Doctor of Musical Arts degree and is an assistant professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. She also teaches violin performance at the Karol Szymanowski State Music Secondary School in Katowice. On an everyday basis, the artist is associated with Messages Quartet and since 2014, she has collaborated regularly with pianist Sylwia Michalik.
The violinist has participated several times in the prestigious International Academy Switzerland founded and led by conducting legend Seiji Ozawa. In 2015, she was honored by the maestro with the opportunity to take part in a festival to celebrate his 80 th birthday – the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan.
The artist has concertized as a soloist with both Polish and foreign orchestras, among others the Amadeus Polish Radio Orchestra; Sinfonia Varsovia; the Silesian, Rzeszów, Białystok, Philharmonic Orchestras; as well as the Calgary Symphony, Loh-Orchester Sondershausen and Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus.
Wasiucionek-Potera is a laureate of national and international competitions; among other awards, she has won 2 nd Prize at the Atlantic Coast Festival International Soloists’ Competition in Esposende, Portugal (2016); 2 nd place and the Dmitri Shostakovich special prize at the 2 nd International Chamber Music Competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (2015); 1 st place and a special prize at the 4 th Michał Spisak International Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza (2010); 1 st place and four special prizes at the 7 th ‘Young Paganini’ National Violin Competition in Legnica (2009).
Małgorzata Wasiucionek-Potera received scholarships in the 7 th and 8 th editions of the Young Poland program; she has also received scholarships from the zDolny Śląsk program, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Minister of Science and Higher Education, the Polish Children’s Fund and the Banque Société Générale. The Rectors’ Committee of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw has awarded her the ‘Magna cum laude’ medal.
fot. Magdalena Hałas
Composer, pianist, improviser, teacher, Doctor of Musical Arts. He graduated with honours from the Chopin University of Music in the piano class of Bronisława Kawalla (2015) and in the composition class of Stanisław Moryto (2016). He also graduated from the Music Manager postgraduate studies (2021), organized by his alma mater. Since 2016, he has been a lecturer at the Chopin University of Music and since 2021 – head of the Music Creator postgraduate studies.
He has won prizes in a number of piano and composers’ competitions. As a soloist, he has performed in Poland and abroad as well as with renowned symphony orchestras, e.g. the Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, or the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has been developing his performing skills at various piano master courses, including in Oxford, Bergen, Imola, Leipzig, or Duszniki-Zdrój. At the same time, he has been working on his compositional technique, e.g. at the Festival Mixtur in Barcelona, the LABO Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, the VIPA Festival in Valencia, the Synthetis in Radziejowice, or the Impuls Festival in Graz. In the 2018/2019 concert season, he was included in the London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers Programme, as part of which one of his compositions was premiered at the London Southbank Centre.
In his works he combines inspirations from various artistic disciplines, thus creating his own unique musical language. His pieces are performed in Poland and abroad (the USA, Canada, Japan, England, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Estonia, Australia, Italy, and Hungary). He has several dozen albums to his credit produced by Ablaze Records, DUX, Chopin University Press (De invitatione mortis, 2020 – nominated for Fryderyk 2021), Bôłt Records, or Requiem Records.
Scholarship holder of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, the Pro Polonia Association (twice), and of the Rector of the Chopin University of Music. In 2014, he won the Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and in 2015 – the Młoda Polska [Young Poland] scholarship. In 2017, he received the ‘Magna cum Laude’ medal for the best graduate of the Chopin University of Music.
