Teresa Kamińska – baroque cello, cello

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A cellist, soloist and chamber musician, a pedagogue. Earned her post-doctoral degree in Arts in 2014 and has been a full and titular professor since 2023. She plays various types of cellos (historical cellos, 5-string piccolo cello, and modern cello), performing solo and chamber music from the period between the 17th century and the present day.

She was educated at the Secondary Music School in Wrocław (diploma with honours, cello class of F. Tatarczyk, M.A.), the Academy of Music in Kraków (diploma with honours, cello class of Professor Witold Herman and contemporary chamber music class of Professor A. Kaczyński) and at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam (a programme at the Department of Historical Performance Practices in the Baroque cello class of W. Möller).

From 1994 to 2011, she taught a cello class at the Academy of Music in Kraków, and in 2007 she took over the newly established Baroque cello class. She also teaches chamber music and is in charge of orchestral projects.

The artist’s significant achievements include the premieres of works by contemporary Polish composers: K. Baculewski (Antitheton III for violin, cello and harpsichord), B. Kowalski (Contra Tempus), P. Szymański (Concerto grosso), A. Walaciński (Duo for viola and cello), T. Paciorkiewicz (Andante calmato for cello and organ – the first world recording).

In 2016, together with an English gambist Mark Caudel, she performed C.F. Abel’s sonatas for viola da gamba and cello from the so-called Maltzan Manuscript at London’s Royal College of Music. This was the contemporary world premiere of those compositions. As a soloist, she has recorded two CDs nominated for the “Fryderyk” Music Award: Seven Angels (HarpClassics) with the 20th-century compositions for cello and organ and A cinque cordes (Musicon) with her own transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s works for five-string piccolo cello and harpsichord (both with an outstanding Polish artist Marek Toporowski), Bach’s solo suites BWV 1007 and BWV 1010 for the Bach Festival in Świdnica and A. Vivaldi’s Concerto for Cello and Bassoon, RV 409 with Giorgio Mandolesi and the ensemble Concerto Polacco (Vivaldi, BNL Productions). As a chamber musician or leader of a cello group, she has taken part in the recording of more than thirty CDs (three of which have won the “Fryderyk” Music Award and seven have received nominations). She has written transcriptions of works by Handel, Brahms and Schubert.

Her solo repertoire includes both the first cello compositions by G.B. Antoni, D. Gabrielli, D. Galli, F. Supriani, G.B. Vitali, J. Dall Abaco and contemporary works – by K. Moszumańska-Nazar, I. Lindholm, K. Penderecki, A. Walacinski and others. As a cellist, she has performed the solo concertos of C.Ph.E. Bach, J. Haydn, L. Leo, A. Vivaldi, numerous Baroque and early Classical sonatas (e.g. L. Boccherini and J. Duport), as well as sonatas for piano and cello (L. van Beethoven, F. Schubert, J. Wölfl) on historical cellos. An important place in her artistic body of work is occupied by performances of piano trios by J. Elsner and F. Chopin with historical piano, and string quartets by L. van Beethoven, J. Brahms and D. Shostakovich, the Sextet in B flat major by Brahms and the Verklärte Nacht by A. Schönberg – also on historical instruments.

She has collaborated with a number of early music ensembles, co-founded the Wroclaw Baroque Trio and Krakow Classical Quartet, and for many years was associated with Marek Toporowski’s Concerto Polacco ensemble. She has performed the complete Mystery Sonatas of H. Biber on several occasions, accompanying the excellent violinist Robert Bachara. She has worked with orchestras playing the Baroque, Classical and Romantic repertoire on historical instruments – primarily with Concerto Polacco, Capella Cracoviensis, Il Tempo and Kölner Akademie. She has performed in Poland and abroad (the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Italy, the United Kingdom) participating in prestigious international festivals, which include: The International Bach Festival in Świdnica, Kromer-Biecz Festival, Warsaw Music Meetings ‘Early Music – New Music’, Chopin and His Europe, Tage Alter Musik in Herne (Germany), Forum Alte Musik Köln, Mitteldeutsche Heinrich-Schütz-Tage (Weissenfels, Germany), Vestfold Festspillene (Norway), Osteuropäische Orgelmusiktage (Grossräschen, Germany), Uckermärkische Musikwochen, Europäische Kirchenmusik Festival (Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany), Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau (Germany), Festival de musica sacra de Bilbao (Spain), Bachfest in der Neuen Bachgesellschaft (Frankfurt an der Oder), Days of the Krakow Composers, Days of Stara Hudba (Bratislava), Anima Musica Early Music Festival in Gdynia, Wawel Evenings, Musica Poetica Paschal Festival in Tarnów, World Music International Festival in Pabianice, Old Sącz Early Music Festival, and others.

She has taught at numerous interpretation courses: The 19th Internationale Musikwerkstatt Schloss Trebnitz – Werkstatt für Alte Musik Trebnitz (Germany), Summer Music Academy in Krakow, International Summer Academy of Early Music, Early Music Forum at UMFC, Music Master Classes in Gdynia, and Summer Methodical Courses of Early Music in Warsaw. She was also a lecturer at the Polish-German Orchestra Academy.

She is the recipient of a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and the Arts. In 2019, she was awarded the badge of honour “Merit for Polish Culture”.