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I Solisti di Varsavia

Kontakt: Tomasz Radziwonowicz

phone (+48) (0) 601 311 391

Tomasz Radziwonowicz - I violin
Anna Staniak - II violin
Marek Iwański - viola
Grażyna Tatarska - cello
Paweł Pańta - double bass

The chamber music ensemble I Solisti di Varsavia was founded by Tomasz Radziwonowicz in 1990. Its members are all eminent chamber musicians from Warsaw. Right from its inception the ensemble has kept a busy schedule of concert activity. It collaborates on a regular basis with the Warsaw Chamber Opera (playing in the annual summer Mozart Festivals), with the National Philharmonic, the Great Theatre in Warsaw, the National Concert Agency, etc. The ensemble has also made itself known abroad. Between 1993 – 1995, they have given three concert tours in Southern France.
The ensemble's concerts in the most prestigious concert halls of Poland's capital city have caused quite a stir in the Warsaw musical circles. I Solisti di Varsavia often play in enlarged composition, with many well known soloists, including Janusz Olejniczak, Robert Gierlach, Leszek Kędracki, Grzegorz Cimoszko, and Karol Radziwonowicz . But they do not restrict themselves to just one musical genre. They present a very varied repertoire, ranging from baroque to modern to contemporary, and performing oratorios and cantatas, but also music of the Viennese composers such as Strauss and Kreisler, as well as jazz (cycles of joint concerts with Adam Makowicz) and even pop (Jobim, Legrand, Mc Cartney, and others).
In December 1997, I Solisti di Varsavia were honored by an invitation from Poland’s Prime Minister - Jerzy Buzek to play at the Cabinet's Christmas Eve celebrations in the Royal Castle in Warsaw – next year, they received the same honor to play. In May 1998, the quintet made a successful appearance in Canada during their concert tour with Karol Radziwonowicz. In July 1999, the quintet has been on the concert tour in Germany, when they received the great appreciation from the audience.
In 1994 they released first CD - a collection of Christmas carols in an original arrangement for string quintet authored by Tomasz Radziwonowicz and Krzesimir Dębski. Two more CDs followed this collection in 1995. One of them consist Mozart's work (Eine kleine Nachtmusik and three Divertimenti - first ever version for single quintet), and second, a very special CD presenting Chopin's compositions in an arrangement for chamber ensemble, with pianist Karol Radziwonowicz as soloist: Variation op. 2, Fantasia on Polish themes op. 13 and Grande Polonaise op. 22. This particular recording - the first in the world phonographs history - was produced to celebrate The XIII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. In 1996, their next CD was released, Jej Świat (Her World) - a selection of the most known popular pieces. Last year, they recorded two more CD’s to complete the entire recording of Fryderyk Chopin’s works in chamber version - both Concertos and Krakowiak op. 14. One of this particular CD’s has been nominated to the Fryderyk 1998 Award in Poland. They have also made a great number of archival recordings for Polish Radio and Television.