Dorota Imiełowska – cello

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Dorota Imiełowska graduated with honors from the Kraków Academy of Music, where she studied under prof. Witold Herman. She perfected her skills with such masters as Miloš Sadlό, Daniel Shafran, and Michel Schwalbé. She is a laureate of numerous competitions and received the prestigious Le Ring de Classiqueinfo phonographic award for the premiere recording of Marek Stachowski’s works for solo cello and orchestra. She also received a special prize from the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne for her talent, artistry, and her performance of works by Krzysztof Penderecki.
She has premiered dozens of solo cello works written especially for her by numerous composers. Leading Polish composers dedicated their works to Dorota Imiełowska, including Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Marek Stachowski, Zbigniew Bujarski, Adam Walaciński, and Stanisław Radwan. She records for TV, radio, and numerous major labels. On Krzysztof Penderecki’s personal invitation she presented his solo and chamber works at concerts in Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Her repertoire ranges from masterpieces by J.S. Bach to contemporary works by such composers as Krzysztof Penderecki or Witold Lutosławski, as well as other genres such as world, jazz, tango, Jewish, Balkan, and many others.
She has published three solo albums: Cello, In Memory (with premiere pieces by Polish composers), and Valse Sentimentale. Together with Kaja Danczowska and Mariola Cieniawa, she recorded and released an album with trios of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Dmitri Shostakovich. She recorded the complete cello works of Marek Stachowski for the record labels Dux and Koch International.
Dorota Imiełowska is a valued performer of Jewish music, both traditional as well as classical. She made the Polish premiere performance of Frederick Kaufman’s cello concerto Kaddish. In 1994, she appeared as a soloist in the famous concert Hommage à Lutosławski at the “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music, where she performed Witold Lutosławski’s Grave for cello and string orchestra to a great reception from the audience and to much critical acclaim.
Dorota Imiełowska has been performing chamber music with many great artists such as Halina Czerny-Stefańska, Elżbieta Stefańska, Kaja Danczowska, Nigel Kennedy, Jerzy Maksymiuk; at concerts and festivals in many countries of Europe and Asia, and in the United States. During the Chopin Year of 1999, she was the principal cellist of Krystian Zimerman’s Polish Festival Orchestra world concert tour. For many years she was also the principal cellist of Sinfonietta Cracovia.
Dorota Imiełowska is a member of the faculty at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, where she teaches cello class and pioneers innovative concepts of artistry combined with the best conservatory tradition of the Russian school. Dorota Imiełowska is also the initiator and organizer of numerous artistic as well as charitable projects. She is active in the world of music and in other areas.
In addition to her performing and recording achievements, Dorota Imiełowska has composed numerous works for solo cello, ensembles, and orchestra. The artist draws from classical, world, jazz, and other musical genres. She is the author of many jazz compositions, written among others for Janusz Muniak, and is also associated with Anna Dymna’s Krakow Poetry Salon, where she acts as the Musical Angel of the Salon. Dorota Imiełowska’s pieces were performed in Poland, Denmark, Germany, and the USA. Her jazz compositions were presented at concerts in Boston, New York, and Chicago.
Her playing remains an inspiration to many composers such as Marek Stachowski, Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Adam Walaciński, Stanisław Radwan, Paweł Sydor; visual artists like Władysław Hasior, Agnieszka Praxmayer, Jerzy Brataniec; or photographers like Marian Curzydło. In 2018, Stanisław Radwan composed the Concertino Piccolo per Dorothea Im. for cello and chamber orchestra, dedicated to Dorota Imiełowska. She also inspired the outstanding Polish jazzman Jarek Śmietana to write a jazz cello concerto especially for her. Works that were written for her have permanently entered the canon of music literature that is eagerly played and listened to.
Dorota Imiełowska perceives art as a world without borders. Music is a space to create new sounds and to discover unknown spaces. The need for freedom and exploration prompted the artist to open up to traditional Jewish music, jazz, as well as world, electronic, and popular music. Dorota Imiełowska creates a unique fusion, combining various styles and techniques. She is not only a cellist, but also plays the morin khuur, kamancheh, sarangi, and Bilgoray suka.