Department of Violin and Viola
For many years, the Chair of the Department of Violin and Viola, founded in 1961, was hold by the great, concert violinist and artist, one of the greatest Polish educators – professor Eugenia Umińska. She raised a galaxy of excellent violinists, winners of prestigious international music competitions, making Polish violin famous on national stages and abroad.
Current titular professors: Kaja Danczowska, Bogusława Hubisz-Sielska, Roman Reiner, Mieczysław Szlezer, Magdalena Szczepanowska i Piotr Tarcholik constitute the core of the current teaching staff in the Department. They were joined by eminent graduates of both the above mentioned and professors: prof. Zbigniew Szlezer, prof. Teresa Głąbówna, prof. Wiesław Kwaśny, doc. Ewy Szubry-Jargoń: dr hab. Aneta Dumanowska, dr hab. Jacek Dumanowski, dr hab. Robert Kabara, dr hab. Wojciech Koprowski, dr hab. Oriana Masternak, dr hab Maria Shetty, dr hab. Maria Sławek, dr Błażej Kociuban, dr Maciej Lulek, mgr Aleksander Daszkiewicz, mgr Aleksandra Kuls-Koziak, mgr Jerzy Mikuliszak.
The strongest side of the Department is its highly qualified staff – 7 teachers was granted by the State with the titular professorship.
The incomparable style of forming young students of higher Strings is consistently continued by subsequent heads of the Department of Violin and Viola – professors: Zbigniew Szlezer, Teresa Głąbówna, Wiesław Kwaśny and Mieczysław Szlezer.
In recent decades, the Department has organized a number of monographic concerts devoted to great violinistic cycles as well as scientific sessions, seminars, master classes, courses and occasional exhibitions. Such ventures have not taken place before in the history of the University.
Master classes were conducted, among others by professors: M. Rezler-Niesiołowska, K.A. Kulka, J. Stanienda, M. Baranowski, J. Kaliszewska, S. Kamasa, J. Kosmala, R. Lasocki, K. Jakowicz, K. Węrzyn, T. Tomaszaszewski, M. Grabarczyk, G. Zhislin, R. Nodel, Danwen Jiang, D. Sitkovetsky, F. Croitoru, H. Zack, M. Kopelman, E. Schmieder, R. Azoitei, A. Leon-Ara, T. Zimmermann, L. Ambartsumian, I. Petrushevsky.
The Chair’s teachers were participating at the Summer Music Academy – from the first edition to the present.
All violin and viola students regularly take part in the international orchestral projects (chamber and symphonic), representing the Krakow’s Academy in many European countries, both Americas and Asia. Every year, at least a few of them receive laurels at international violin and viola competitions. To date, the Chair of Violin and Viola has every reason to be proud of over a hundred winners of important international competitions. Students participate in masterclasses organized by major violin education centers around the world. They took and actively participated in the EU Socrates-Erasmus program and then LLP Erasmus taking full advantage of the opportunity to study at partner universities throughout Europe.
Graduates of the class of violin and viola leaving our Academy with the Master of Arts degree are presenting a very high level of professional skills. They are versatile instrumentalists, have deep theoretical and practical knowledge, and usually have also pedagogical preparation. Many of them find employment in renowned orchestral and chamber ensembles around the world, take up teaching positions at foreign and Polish music schools of all levels, or continue an extremely difficult soloistic career spreading the good name of our University and at the same time testifying to its very high level of academic teaching.
translated by Mieczysław Szlezer