performers (R)

violist, chamber musician; b. 13th December 1957 in Lublin. He graduated from the Music Academy in Sofia, where he studied viola with Aleksander Nejnski, while being supervised by Andrzej Górecki (violin and viola) in Lublin. He honed his skills at master classes conducted by members of the Amadeus Quartet in London.

From 1981 to 1988 he was a musician of the Polish Chamber Orchestra conducted by maestro Jerzy Maksymiuk, which in 1984 developed into the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra. Since 1988 he has been a member of the Camerata Quartet. With this ensemble he won a number of awards at music competitions, among others in Tokyo (1989), Munich (Karl Klingler Preis, 1990) and Paris (1st prize at the UFAM Chamber Music Competition, 1990), as well as awards for recordings, including Diapason d'Or for the album with chamber music by Guillaume Lekeu (1994), the title of the ‘Record of the Year’ by the Studio monthly for the recording of Franz Schubert's string quartets (1995), the ‘Fryderyk’ Award for the album Antonio Vivaldi: Four Seasons (1998), and Pizzicato Supersonic Award (2009). He has recorded 30 albums with chamber music for national and international labels, including: DUX, Koch International, Ricercar, Thorofon.

Piotr Reichert has performed in most European countries, the United States, Japan and China. From the beginning of the nineties, he has performed in a quartet in many renowned concert halls in Poland and around the world, including: Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall, Sibelius Academy Great Hall, Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Sofia Philharmonic, Conservatory in Bern, Centro Cultural in Mexico City, Hermitage Theater Hall in St. Petersburg, Forbidden City Hall in Beijing, National Gallery in London. He also took part in such festivals as: the International Festival in Łańcut, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Wallonie, Van Flandern Festival, Warsaw Autumn, Festival de Sintra, or Bodensee Festival. He also performs as a soloist. He has made recordings for the Polish Radio and radio stations in Germany, Spain and the United States.

Piotr Reichert is also involved in teaching activities. Since 1992 he has taught at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, currently serving as a professor. Since 2012 he has taught viola at the Fryderyk Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. As part of his didactic and research activity, he has supervised three doctoral dissertations and he has served as a reviewer of multiple PhD theses, habilitation proceedings and professorship appointments. He has also taught viola and chamber music courses at the International Music Courses in Łańcut, the Music Academy in Żagań, the Spring Music Academy in Przemyśl, the courses in Janowiec, Puck and Gorlice.

His students (Ryszard Groblewski, Katarzyna Budnik-Gałązka) have won top prizes at national and international competitions, including: ARD in Munich, Music Competition in Geneva, Johannes Brahms Competition in Poertschach, Music Competitions in Bled, Hradec and Sonderhausen, as well as Jan Rakowski Viola Competition in Poznań and Michał Spisak International Music Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza.

He is the vice-president of the Polish Chamber Music Society. For his activities he was twice awarded the award of the Rector of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. He also received the honorary badge ‘Meritorious Activist of Culture’ (with Camerata Quartet, 2004) and the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2009) from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

updated: 2021 (ac)