persons' index (S)

harpsichordist, teacher; b. 8 April 1980 in Zielona Góra. In 2004 she graduated with honours from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (harpsihord classes of Leszek Kędracki and Władysław Kłosiewicz). She continued harpsichord studies with John Gibbons at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, USA. She was granted French Government Scholarship, Academie Musicale de Villecroze, and scholarships for participation in master-classes in Montisi (Italy), Villecroze (France), Antwerpen (Belgium), Krieglach (Austria), Cambridge (United Kingdom), and Karlsruhe (Germany) led by outstanding professors and artists such as Huguette Dreyfus, Bob van Asperen, Jos van Immersel, Ketil Haugsand, Menno van Delft, Robert Hill, Jacques Ogg and The Parley of Instruments.

As a soloist and chamber musician she has performed and recorded with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, Polish Radio Orchestra, Kraków Philharmonic, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra (Lodz), Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra (Ostrava), Morphing Vienna Chamber Orchestra (with Andreas Scholl) and Arte dei Suonatori during many national and international festivals (Nantes, Bilbao, Tokio, Berlin). She represented Poland in the International EBU Competition New Talent 2005 in Bratislava.

Apart from typical harpsichord repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, she also plays contemporary music. She premiered Paweł Szymański's Les Poiriers en Pologne ou une Suite de Pieces Sentimentales de Clavecin faites par Mr Szymanski (2010) and Dissociative Counterpoint Disorder (2014), written and dedicated to the instrumentalist.

Małgorzata Sarbak gives regular performances on historical keyboard instruments. She has frequently played Mozart on the rare tangent piano (Tangentenflügel) from the German collections of historical instruments in Bad Krozingen and Miltenberg. In order to reach new audiences, Małgorzata Sarbak also gives concerts in atypical venues, such as Warsaw’s cafés (Chłodna 25, Nowy Wspaniały Świat, Pardon To Tu, Nie Zawsze Musi Być Chaos, Bar Studio), where she performs both solo and in chamber ensembles, not only with period performance experts (notably with pianist Marcin Masecki).

She made archival recordings for the Polish Radio as well as orchestral and solo recordings. 2013 saw the release of her debut (3-CD) album containing J. S. Bach’s Harpsichord Partitas (Clavier-Übung I, BWV 825–830). Produced by the Warsaw-based label Lado ABC with support from the National Audiovisual Institute, it is Poland’s first complete recording of that cycle on a harpsichord. Her second album was released in September 2016 by the Warsaw label Bôłt Records in cooperation with DUX Recording Producers, National Audiovisual Institute, Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Polish Radio Programme 2. The title of the album comes from the solo piece that Szymański composed for Sarbak in 2014 – Dissociative Counterpoing Disorder – and includes two world premiere recordings of Szymanski’s solo works and his Partita III recorded with the Janacek Orchestra and Zsolt Nagy.

Małgorzata Sarbak has also composed music for theatrical performances presented in the important Polish dramatic theatres: Your Highness (WARSawy Theatre), Far from Wuthering Heights (Dramatyczny Theatre, Warsaw), Aleksandra. A Play about Piłsudski, and For God’s Sake! (Dramatyczny Theatre, Wałbrzych).

In the years 2010-2015 she lectured at the Summer Early Music Methodical Courses in Warsaw. Currently she teaches harpsichord at the Fryderyk Chopin State Music School Complex in Warsaw (Harpsichord, Organ and Early Music Section).

updated: 2020 (ac)

Artist's website: http://www.malgorzatasarbak.com/