Anna Liszewska
Anna Liszewska graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (1995), piano class of Prof. Lidia Kozubek. At the same institution she completed two-year postgraduate studies in chamber music with prof. Barbara Halska in 1998. She participated in masterclasses given by such artists as Prof. John Owings (Warsaw, 1993) or Prof. Andrzej Jasiński (Wrocław, 1993). In the period of 1998 – 1999, she collaborated with the Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Warsaw with which she took part in numerous concerts and recordings nationwide as well as during a tour in Germany, e.g. performing the piano part in Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for orchestra (conducted by Wojciech Rajski). As a soloist, among other pieces, she has performed concertos in B-flat Major KV 595, D Major KV 40 and A Major KV 414 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the Polish Camerata Orchestra under Marek Głowacki. She has given numerous chamber recitals, both with singers and instrument players, full of stylistically varied repertoire. On many occasions she has accompanied singers during vocal (song and operatic) competitions. She was invited as a piano accompanist to participate in the Summer Courses of Music Interpretation in Nowy Sącz (1998-2001, 2007).
Since 1999, she has been connected with the Academy of Music in Łódź, where until 2010 she worked as a lecturer, accompanying during vocal classes at the Faculty of Vocal and Acting Studies, working for such professors as: Prof. Delfina Ambroziak, Prof. Urszula Kryger, Prof. Zdzisław Krzywicki, Prof. Piotr Miciński, Prof. Leonard Andrzej Mróz, Prof. Ziemowit Wojtczak and Prof. Włodzimierz Zalewski; viola classes given by Prof. Zbigniew Frieman, cello classes with Prof. Agata Jarecka , and flute classes with Prof. Antoni Wierzbiński. Since 2010, she has worked as an Professor AM at the Chair of Chamber Music (now the Institute of Chamber Music), Academy of Music in Łódź, teaching accompaniment and piano chamber music classes.
Her passion is music written by Slav composers, which is also related to the current artistic activity and phonographic recordings. The first monographic album in her career entitled Entuzjasta was also devoted to Slav music. The material recorded with the Singer Piotr Hruszwicki was released in April 2013 and it included selected songs, ballades and piano works by Stanisław Moniuszko. Her next monographic recording with chamber pieces by F. X. Mozart (F.X. Mozart. Chamber Works DUX 1317) included all instrumental duos with piano written by W.A. Mozart’s youngest son known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr. In 2017, DUX released the recordings of piano works for four hands by Polish composers made in collaboration with Agata Górska-Kołodziejska (The forgotten Polish piano music for four hands DUX 1433). In 2018, Acte Prealable already released the first of the planned albums, which includes Cracoviennes op. 7, Mazurs op. 38 and Polonaises op. 42 by Zygmunt Noskowski (Zygmunt Noskowski. Piano Works 4 AP 0415) recorded in a duet with Anna Mikolon. Both pianists also recorded together the 5 Waltzes op. 28 for piano for four hands by Jerzy Gablenz on the album Jerzy Gablenz. Piano and Chamber Works AP 0412. Also in 2018, DUX released the recording of solo piano works by F.X. Mozart interpreted by Anna Liszewska (F.X. Mozart. Piano Works DUX 1441). In 2021, together with pianist Hanna Holeksa, she also recorded the audiovisual premiere of Witold Friemann's two solo concertos for two piano.
Anna Liszewska has taught piano classes uninterruptedly since 1995 at the Primary and Secondary Music School in Łódź.
Hanna Holeksa
Hanna HOLEKSA started learning the piano at the age of seven with Elżbieta Wierzbicka at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Music School in Zakopane. She continued her education at the Fryderyk Chopin Music School in Bytom. In 2000 he graduated with an honours degree from the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice, where she studied piano performance with Andrzej Jasiński and chamber music with Regina Strokosz-Michalak. From 2004 to 2007, she studied with Tomasz Herbut at the Hochschule der Künste Bern. She has received numerous awards at music competitions in Poland and abroad, including Second Prize at the Miłosz Magin International Piano Competition in Paris (1992), First Prize at the Franz Liszt National Piano Competition in Wrocław (1995), Second Prize and a special award for the best interpretation of a piece by a Polish composer (with bassoonist Dawid Smykowski) at the Krzysztof Penderecki International Competition of Contemporary Chamber Music in Kraków (1997), First Prize at the National Yamaha Foundation Competition in Gdańsk (1999), First Prize at the Odd-Fellows Musikpreis International Instrumental Competition in Bern (2003). In 2004 she won First Prize at the Rahn Musikpreis in Zurich, which included a debut at the city’s Tonhalle in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5. In the years 1995–1998 she was among the winners of the annual national competition for the Fryderyk Chopin grants.
In 2005 she recorded Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concerto for two pianos KV 242 and Camille Saint- Saëns’s The Carnival of Animals (with the pianist Patrizio Mazzola and the Schweizer Kammerorchester under Kaspar Zehnder). Her discography also includes CDs featuring sonatas for violin and piano by Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss, Karol Szymanowski, Francis Poulenc and Maurice Ravel recorded with Mariusz Derewecki for the label of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music Academy in Poznań, two albums with solo and chamber works by Émile Pierre Ratez recorded with Marcin and Ewa Murawski for Acte Préalable, CDs with Aleksander Tansman’s chamber works recorded with Magdalena Kling-Fender and Robert Fender (as members of Vivo Trio), with Elżbieta Mrożek-Loska (viola), as well as a CD with works by Henryk Wieniawski and Szymanowski recorded with the violinist Karina Gidaszewska for Ars Sonora, CDs with Tansman piano music and contemporary sonatas for doublebass and piano (recorded with Marek Romanowski) for DUX.
As an accompanist, she works closely with violinists, violists, cellists, double bassists, flautists, clarinettists and singers. She has received numerous awards and honourable mentions for accompanists at national and international instrumental competitions. In 2016 she was an official pianist at the 15th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poznań.
She appears regularly in Poland and abroad both as a soloist and chamber musician in a wide-ranging repertoire that spans music from the Baroque to the present. Another field of her activities is the organization of concerts, competitions and workshops for musically gifted youth.
In 2011 she obtained a doctorate on the basis of her dissertation ”The piano in the music of Karol Szy- manowski”, which crowned her many years of research into the composer’s solo and chamber music. In 2015 she was conferred a postdoctoral degree in the arts. She directs a chamber music class at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Music Academy in Łódź.