Messages Quartet
Described by critics as “one of the best Polish string quartets at the moment”, it was founded in 2014 and just one year later won the Second Prize, Silver Medal and Special Prize for its interpretation of D. Szostakowicz quartet in the 2nd International Chamber Music Competition in Plovdiv (Bulgaria, October 2015). Since then, the ensemble has performed continuously in Poland and around the world, including Vienna, London, Sao Paulo, Bautzen, San Francisco, and Moscow. The focus of Messages Quartet’s interests is Polish music, especially the lesser-known and recent music, and the artists have been repeatedly awarded and appreciated for their interpretations of this music. In 2016, the ensemble was the winner of the “Młoda Polska” Scholarship Program, thanks to which it released its debut album containing a recording of string quartets by Szymon Laks thanks to DUX recording company. The album received excellent reviews in the French, German, British, American, and Polish press.
Małgorzata Wasiucionek
Graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Currently, she works as an assistant in the class of Professor Szymon Krzeszowiec at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. As a soloist, she has performed with many orchestras, including the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Symphony Orchestra of the City of Cottbus, and the Orchestra of the City of Calgary. She has taken part in numerous workshops and chamber music festivals working under the direction of outstanding artists including Sadao Harada, Nobuko Imai and Pamela Frank. With chamber ensembles she has performed at numerous concerts in Poland – at the Royal Castle in Warsaw and abroad, e.g., in Japan. She is a laureate of many national and international competitions. Her recent achievements include: 2nd place at the 2nd International Chamber Music Competition – 2015 in Plovdiv (Bulgaria). In February 2015, the Chapter of the Rectors of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music awarded her the medal “Magna cum laude”.
Oriana Masternak
Violinist, chamber musician, teacher at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow, Doctor of Musical Arts. Award-winning interpreter and researcher of Polish music. The artist gives regular concerts as a soloist and, above all, as a chamber musician in Asia, both Americas and most European countries. She has performed at the famous Musikverein in Vienna, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and New York’s Carnegie Hall. She has won a number of prizes at national and international competitions, including in Bulgaria and New York. She studied, among others: at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels and the Yale School of Music. In 2014, the publishing house of the Academy of Music in Cracow released the artist’s debut album with works for violin and piano by Lucien Durosoir. Oriana Masternak teaches her violin class at the Department of Violin and Viola at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow. For several years she has been a lecturer at the Małopolska Talent Academy in Łącko, as well as at the Summer Music Academy in Cracow. The artist plays an instrument made by Sebastian Lang in 1788.
Maria Shetty
Doctor of Arts, graduate of the Academy of Music in Cracow and the Universtität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien. Since 2011, she has been a violist with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. She has also collaborated with the Sinfonietta Cracovia and Capella Cracoviensis orchestras. She is the winner of national and international competitions such as the International Chamber Music Competition in Plovdiv (2nd prize and special prize for her interpretation of D. Szostakowicz music, 2015) and the Charles Hennen Concours in the Netherlands (2nd prize and Baerenreiter Urtext Preis special prize, 2011). She has performed at festivals such as Festival Pablo Casals (Prades), Mozartiade (Augsburg) and Kalkalpen Festival (Grossraming), among others. In 2016, she started teaching as an assistant in Professor Pisarski’s viola class at the Academy of Music in Cracow. She also teaches summer courses as part of the Małopolska Talent Academy.
Beata Urbanek-Kalinowska
Doctor of Musical Arts. She graduated from the Academy of Music in Cracow and obtained the Diplôme Supérieur d’Enseignement – A l’unanimité at the EcoleNormale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot in the class of Professor Paul Julien. She is also a graduate of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart. She is currently the assistant professor in the Department of Chamber Music at the Academy of Music in Cracow. She is a laureate of competitions – she won the 2nd place and the “Shostakovich Prize” special prize at the 2nd International Chamber Music Competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (with the Messages Quartet in 2015). She has participated in masterclasses under the direction of: Krzysztof Penderecki, and Stanisław Firlej, among others. She has performed at festivals at home and abroad. With Nigel Kennnedy, with whom she has collaborated since 2010, she has recorded albums for Sony Classical -The Four Elements, The new Four Seasons. As cello concertmaster, she collaborates with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra. She has been its co-founder since its inception.
