Blanka Bednarz enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, concertmaster and teacher. She has concertized in Europe and the United States, appearing on stages such as Jordan Hall in Boston, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Miller Hall and Kosciuszko Foundation House in New York City,  Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University Hall, Cardiff City Hall and others.  She has appeared as a soloist with the Great Poland Symphony and Sinfonietta Polonia, the New England Conservatory Honors Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, Connecticut Virtuosi, Georgia Southern Symphony, among others. Bednarz was particularly influential in the establishment of the New England Conservatory Chamber Orchestra.

Bednarz is a recipient of several awards from the Presser Foundation, the St. Bololph Club Foundation, and the Tourjée Society. She is a winner in the Naftzger Young Artist Competition and took the second prize at the Jefferson Symphony Concerto Competition. Among artists with whom she has collaborated are Eric Rosenblith, Lawrence Lesser, Joanna Kurkowicz, Irina Muresanu, Adrian Levine, Timothy Deighton, Barry Snyder, Ning An, Rita Sloan, the Corigliano Quartet, Red and White, the award winning Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and Alarm Will Sound. Dr. Bednarz studied violin with Eric Rosenblith (MM, DMA) and Michele Auclair in New England Conservatory,  Ben Sayevich (BM) at the Kansas University, Jadwiga Kaliszewska ( School of Talents in Poznan), and viola with James Dunham in NEC. Her coaches were members of the Cleveland, Guarneri, and Borromeo Quartets, James Buswell, Leon Kirchner, and the late Eugene Lehner, among others.

Bednarz played with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Wichita Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Sinfonietta Polonia, a unique orchestral training program she and her husband/conductor Cheung Chau established in Poland. As a member of the Huntington Piano Trio, Bednarz performed at the Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, on Boston's WGBH Radio and concert series, and on Polish Radio. Tygodnik Podhalanski described the trio’s performance as ‘beautifully sensitive,’ and the Boston Globe praised its eloquent rendition of Kirchner’s Second Trio. The trio released a CD under A.W. Promotions.

In 2002 Bednarz, cellist Cheung Chau, and pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski formed the Atma Trio. The ensemble’s performances meet with critical acclaim. Gazeta Wyborcza praised, for instance, Bednarz’s “passionate performance and artistic maturity.”  A reviewer of the Radio Merkury noted “these are excellent musicians who truly know what it means to play chamber music.” The Trio performed under the auspices of the Szymanowski and Hofmann Associations, Antonina Kawecka Foundation, in venues and at festivals such as the National Museum of Instruments, the Baltic Sea Culture Center, the White Hall, Wielkopolskie Centrum Chopinowskie, the Wieniawski Festival, the Days of Szymanowski Festival, the Mozart Festival, etc. The Trio broke several attendance records in Poland, performing also in Lithuania, Germany, and Sweden. In the US, the trio performed under the auspices of the Chopin Foundation of the US in Miami, at Lawrence Conservatory, at numerous universities, at the Chopin & Friends Festival in NYC, etc. A CD of Atma Trio with Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor by F. Mendelssohn and Piano Trio in A minor by M. Ravel has been released by Acte Prealable in 2007. Bednarz may be heard also on Capstone Records in music by R. Y. Gawlick. Soon another disc of Gawlick’s chamber music featuring Bednarz will be released. A CD of Mozart’s Flute Quartets (E. Murawska, Bednarz, M. Murawski, Chau) was released and highly praised by Twoja Muza.

Bednarz is Assistant Professor in Violin and Viola at Dickinson College and a first violinist at Vega String Quartet -  "in residence" at Emory University.  She had served as a teaching assistant to Professor Rosenblith at the New England Conservatory, and had taught at the NEC Preparatory and Continuing Education School and Bethany College. She coached the NECCO with Donald Palma and chamber ensembles at the International Musical Arts Institute (IMAI) in Maine. She has also given master classes at NEC, for College and Preparatory Divisions, and at the University of Kansas, Lawrence Conservatory, Messiah College, Mercer University, Wichita State University, Penn State, etc.

This season Bednarz performs with members of Alarm Will Sound, with Atma Trio in Poland and Germany, in Music At First series in PA, in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Connecticut Virtuosi, with pianist Matthew Bengtson in recital at the Philadelphia Ethical Society (under the auspices of the Kosciuszko Foundation), at Kansas State University, and very intensively with Vega String Quartet in USA, France, Germany, Poland.

 

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