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Three
Critics
refer to Atma Trio as "excellent musicians who truly know the art of
performing chamber music". The
trio concertizes regularly in the United States and Poland (where it often
breaks audience attendance records during their concerts), and performs in
Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Italy and China. Atma Trio performed at several prestigious
festivals, such as International Festival Chopin and
Friends in New York City, in Music!Gettysburg series, the “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, International Wieniawski Festival in Szczawno-Zdroj,
Chanterelle Festival in Goluchow (Poland) etc,
on invitations from organizations such as the Chopin Foundation of the
United States (Florida), Kosciuszko Foundation, Hoffman Association, Kawecka
Foundation, Society of Chinese-Polish Friendship and many others.
Members
of the ensemble are Slawomir
Dobrzanski
–
piano,
assistant professor of piano and piano literature at Kansas State University, Blanka
Bednarz
–
violin, assosiate professor of music and Chair of Department of Music at
Dickinson College and
Cheung
Chau
–
cello, assistance professor and associate conductor of Symphony Orchestra of the
University of Connecticut. Chau is also Music Director of
Central Pennsylvania Orchestra and General and Artistic Director of Sinfonietta Polonia
in Poland (www.sinfoniettapolonia.pl).
Atma
Trio was founded in 2002. 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,
Bednarz at times exchanging her violin for viola.
Atma
Trio has collaborated with such artists as violinists Adrian Levine, Mark
Ptashne, Natalia Walewska and Kin Chau, violists Timothy Deighton, Marcin
Murawski and Lukasz Lisowski, pianists Jennifer Blyth, Teres Löf, Karla Qualls,
Martin Hellstrom, Joanna Michna, Rafal Lewandowski, clarinetists Linda
Cionitti and Fan Lei, members of the Mendelssohn Piano Trio and Hölderlin
Quartet.
The trio performed in Miami, FL for the Chopin Foundation, at
Kansas State University, in Poland (at Warsaw and Chanterelle Fastiva;, at
Germany, in Music At First Series in PA
and with
the Connecticut Virtuosi in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.n Savannah, GA, at Grace Cathedral in Topeka, KS, at Wichita State University,
at
Beijing and
and Zionjiang
in China. Atma Trio also
released a CD on the leading Polish label Acte Prealable (APO172) with trios by
Mendelssohn and Ravel.
At
2010 Atma Trio participated, among others at festival "American Tribute to
Chopin" at Baltimore.
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