Three artistic individualities of Atma Trio are bound not only by their love for chamber music but also by their musical temperaments. Critics refer to them as "excellent musicians who truly know the art of performing chamber music". The “Atma” Piano Trio usually breaks audience attendance records during their artistic tours.

The Trio performed in the United States, Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden. It participated in several prestigious festivals, such as “International Chopin & Friends Festival” in New York City, “International Musical Art Institute Festival” in Fryeburg, Maine, “Days of Karol Szymanowski's Music” in Zakopane, “Chopinesque Confrontations” in Antonin, “International Festival of Organ and Chamber Music” in Slupsk, Mozart Festival in Poznan and many others.

The artists began their collaboration as students. Pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski, and Blanka Bednarz, violinist, often performed as a duo during their studies at the University of Kansas. Blanka and cellist/husband Cheung Chau met as graduate students at the New England Conservatory.  Currently, Blanka Bednarz is first violinist at Vega String Quartet - in  residency at Emory University in Atlanta and assistant professor at Dickinson College, Slawomir Dobrzanski and Cheung Chauare are professors at  Kansas State University and Georgia Southern University. Cheung Chay is also Music Director of Georgoa Southern Symphony and Sinfonietta Polonia.

In 2002, Dobrzanski, Bednarz and Chau formed the Atma Trio. Inspired by the music of Karol Szymanowski and enchanted with Szymanowski's favorite dwelling, Villa Atma in the Tatra Mountain resort town of Zakopane in Poland, the artists chose the Sanskrit word "atman" (soul) for their ensemble. Szymanowski's only piano trio did not survive the composer's scrutiny. Yet the members of Atma Trio often perform his works for solo piano, violin and piano or transcriptions for cello and piano, as well as his violin concertos. The Trio's programs are usually diverse, featuring not only trios, but solos, duos, and larger works in collaboration with guest performers. The Atma Trio collaborates with such artists as violinists Adrian Levine, mark Ptashne, Joanna Kurkowicz, Natalia Walewska and Kin Chau, violists Timothy Deighton, Marcin Murawski and Lukasz Lisowski, pianists Jennifer Blyth, Teres Löf, Martin Hellstrom,  Joanna Michna, Rafal Lewandowski, clarinetists Linda Cionitti and Fan Lei.

Last seasons, “Atma” Piano Trio toured Lithuania and Poland; in the U.S., they performed in New York City, Providence, RI, at Lawrence Conservatory, WI, at Georgia State University, in Music! Gettysburg series, PA. In 2007 the trio performs for the Chopin Foundation in Floryda, joins forces with members of the Mendelssohn Piano Trio, performs at Kansas State University, in Poland and Germany. In October, the Trio will present Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Connecticut Virtuosi.  

 


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