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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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