Cracow Brass Quintet

Formed in 1998, it consists of oboist Marek Mleczko, clarinettist Roman Widaszek and bassoonist Paweł Solecki. The ensemble’s members are laureates of national and international music competitions, graduates of the Academies of Music in Cracow and Katowice, who met in the Capella Cracoviensis chamber orchestra in Cracow, co-creating a distinctive brass group for many years. The musicians have given many chamber concerts with a diverse repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary music and have performed in many important musical centres in Europe – Paris, Vienna, Lisbon, as well as at almost all prestigious music festivals in Poland, meeting with the enthusiasm of the audience and the appreciation of critics. In 2005, collaborating with PWM (Polish Music Publishing House) and DUX (one of the biggest independent Polish record companies), the ensemble recorded a CD with works by Polish composers of the 20th century (Szałowski, Tansman, Lutosławski, Spisak, Palester, Krauze), and a year later, at the invitation of the Polish Bach Society, recorded Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata in E flat major BWV 525 in their own arrangement. The musicians of the Cracow Tuning Trio also collaborate with Polish composers. This collaboration results in new compositions, which are dedicated to the ensemble (Krzesimir Dębski, Krzysztof Herdzin, Paweł Łukaszewski). The members of the Kraków Tuning Trio are teachers at the Academies of Music in Cracow and Katowice, and together with flutist Katarzyna Kurowska-Mleczko and French horn player Tadeusz Tomaszewski form the Cracow Brass Quintet.

Katarzyna Kurowska- Mleczko

She began her musical education under the direction of the well-known and highly regarded Cracow composer Janina Garść. She graduated from the Academy of Music in Cracow in the flute class of Professor Z. Kamionka. As a scholarship holder of the French government, she took postgraduate studies in Paris with Proffesor Ph. Pierlot. She is a laureate of the 2nd prize in the K. Kurpiński International Flute Competition in Włoszakowice. For over 20 years, she was the first flutist in the Capella Cracoviensis chamber orchestra, conducted by S. Gałoński. She has toured with this ensemble in many European countries, as well as the USA, Japan and China. She has made numerous phonographic recordings, taking part, among others, in recordings for the Koch Schwann record label, which were awarded the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix du Disque Academie Charles-Cros. She has collaborated with the Ensamble International de Paris, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic of W. Rajski, the PR and TV Orchestra in Cracow and the Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. Currently engaged in teaching, she is also a flutist with the Cracow Brass Quintet, with which she recorded the album Quint(et)essence in 2016.