performers (S)

cellist; b. 1993 in Białystok. She started playing the cello at the age of 7 with Grażyna Gedroyć at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski State Music School Complex in Białystok. In the years 2009-2012 she studied with Andrzej Orkisz at the Zenon Brzewski Music School in Warsaw. In 2018 she graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar, where she studied with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Since 2018 she has been studying with with Jens Peter Maintz and Fernando Arias at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid.

She has participated in numerous masterclasses with such renowned cellists as David Geringas, Frans Helmerson, Truls Svane, Jens Peter Maintz, Philippe Müller, Torleif Thedeen, Ivan Monighetti, Julius Berger, László Fenyö, Gustav Rivinius, and Kazimierz Michalik.

Zuzanna has received the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship and the Polish Prime Minister Scholarship. In 2007-2012 she took part in the National Children's Found Programme. In 2013 she was awarded the Deutschland Stipend. Since 2014 she has been a scholarship recipient of the International Music Academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein. In 2015 she was awarded Charlotte Krupp Stipend from New Liszt Foundation. Since 2015 she has been a scholar of a chamber music programme "Villa Musica". As a scholar of Yehudi Menuhin Association (2013-2018) she was an active participant in the "Live Music Now" programme.

She is the winner of national and international cello competitions, including the 2nd prize in the International Cello Competition in Liezen (Austria), the 1st prize in the 17th Petar Konjovic International Competition in Belgrad (Serbia), the 2nd prize (1st prize was not awarded) and a special prize in the 9th Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Poreč (Croatia), a special prize in the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Zagreb (Croatia), a special prize in the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy Competition in Düsseldorf, the 1st prize (ex aequo) in the 10th Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition in Warsaw (Poland), a special prize at the International Music Competition "Dr. Luis Sigall" in Viña del Mar (Chile), and the 3rd prize in the International Cello Competition Benedetto Mazzacurati in Turin (Italy). As a chamber musician, she won the 1st prize (ex aequo) in the "Salieri-Zinetti" International Chamber Music Competition in Verona, the 3rd Prize in the International Chamber Music Competition in Calgary (Canada) and the 1st Prize in the International Juliusz Zarębski Music Competition in Łomianki (Poland).

Zuzanna has performed as a soloist, in duo with Spanish pianist Magí Garcías as well as a member of the "Polish Soloists String Orchestra" in Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Namibia, and Canada. She has collaborated with such distinguished musicians as Vadym Kholodenko, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Sunwook Kim, Antonio Meneses, Roland Krüger, Arto Noras, Andrei Bielow, Clemens Trautmann, Berlin Piano Quartett. As a soloist she performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the AUKSO Orchestra, the Orchestra of European Music Centre in Białystok, the Polish Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Young Orchester in Kiel, the Pforzheim Philharmonic, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchester Berlin and Orchestra Cambra de Mallorca. She has been invied to perfom at such festivals as the "Music Connects" in Switzerland, the "Goslar-Harz Music Fest" in Germany, the International "Los Sounds Biennale" in Warsaw, the "Krzyżowa Music" International Chamber Music Festival in Poland, and the "Clasclas Festival" in Spain.

In 2018 Zuzanna made her first recording commisioned by the Polish Radio. Together with the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Bassem Akiki she recorded Cello Concerto No. 1 by Grażyna Bacewicz.

In 2019 she received a special prize of Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain during a concert at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

updated: 2020 (ac)

Artist's website: www.zuzanna-sosnowska.pl