Blanka Bednarz enjoys a versatile career as a soloist,
recitalist, chamber musician, concertmaster and teacher. She has concertized in the USA, United Kingdom, Poland,
Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Lithuania, at venues such as
the Jordan Hall in Boston, Miller Hall, Philadelphia Ethical Society,
Kosciuszko Foundation House, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York,
Aula UAM and White Hall in Poznan, Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Cardiff
City Hall, and at various prestigious festivals such as Highlands-Cashiers
Chamber Music Festival, Chanterelle Festival, Mozart Festival in Poznan,
Wieniawski Festival, Days of Szymanowski, International Chopin and Friends
Festival in New York, etc. As soloist Bednarz has appeared with the Connecticut Virtuosi, the
Georgia Southern Symphony, the Great Poland Symphony, Sinfonietta Polonia, the
Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Honors Symphony and
Chamber Orchestra (Bednarz was particularly influential in the establishment of
the latter).
Bednarz’s playing has been hailed
as “beautiful, mature and rich in color” (Gazeta
Wyborcza, Poland). Bednarz is an
avid chamber musician, performing in a variety of settings and with renowned
artists, such as: Rita Sloan, Barry Snyder,
Richard Stolzman, Adrian Levine, William Ransom, Joanna Kurkowicz, Daniel Veis,
Roeland Hendrix, Eddie Gomez, Timothy Deighton, Heng-Jin Park, Ning An, Sergei
Schepkin, Martin Storey, the Corigliano Quartet, the award winning Chameleon
Arts Ensemble of Boston, and Alarm Will Sound. In 2007 Bednarz was invited to join the accomplished
Vega Quartet for a residency with the Piedmont Symphony (NC) and subsequently as
first violinist with Vega Quartet-in-residence at Emory University in Atlanta GA
(2007-08).
Bednarz is a member of the Atma Trio (www.atmatrio.org)
established in 2002 with cellist
Cheung Chau, and pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski). The ensemble’s performances
consistently meet with critical acclaim. Gazeta Wyborcza praised, for instance, Bednarz’s
“passionate performance and artistic maturity.” A reviewer of
the Radio Merkury noted
of Atma Trio that “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, A. 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 and Friends Festival in NYC, etc. The trio has been heard on Radio
Merkury and Radio Emaus, as well as television stations
in Poznan and Wroclaw. The Trio’s series Atma Trio and Friends has
been sought after.
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.
As
orchestral musician Bednarz played with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra,
Wichita Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (participating in
several recording projects), Sibelius Academy Orchestra, etc. She is
concertmaster of Sinfonietta Polonia, a unique orchestral training program she and her
husband/conductor Cheung Chau established in Poland. The orchestra has been
highly praised and noted (see www.sinfoniettapolonia.pl).
It has been featured on TVP Poznan, Leszno Television, and has been heard on Radio
Merkury and Radio Emaus).
Bednarz
won the first prize in the Naftzger Young Artist Competition, took the second
prize at the Jefferson Symphony Concerto Competition in Denver and received
numerous other awards and honors, including the Presser Foundation, Tourjée
Alumni, Datatel Awards, and St. Botolph Foundation Grant
Bednarz is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at
Dickinson College, PA. As first violinist of Vega Quartet she taught chamber
music at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and coached ensembles in Vega Quartet
Youth Chamber music program. She was artist affiliate faculty at the
Georgia Southern University (2007-08). 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 D. Palma and chamber ensembles at the International Musical Arts
Institute (IMAI) in ME, premiere youth chamber program “Franklin
Pond” and Centennial School orchestra camps in Atlanta. She is a member of
the string faculty at International-Musical-Institute-and-Festival in MD. She
has also given master classes at NEC, for College and Preparatory Divisions, and
at the University of Kansas, Lawrence Conservatory, Messiah College, Mercer
Univ., Wichita State Univ., Penn State, etc. Bednarz’s students have won concerto competitions
and have gone on to studying violin performance at institutions such as NYU,
Longy School of Music, Catholic Univ., etc.
Dr. Bednarz is a graduate of “Talent
School” (Poznan, Poland, with Jadwiga Kaliszewska), University of Kansas
(BM summa cum laude, with Ben Sayevich), New England Conservatory (on full
scholarship, MM summa cum laude, DMA, with Eric Rosenblith, Michele Auclair and
viola with James Dunham). Her coaches were members of the Cleveland, Guarneri,
Cavani, Ying and Borromeo Quartets, Patricia Zander, James Buswell, Leon
Kirchner, and the late Eugene Lehner, etc.
In 2007-08 Bednarz performed in numerous concerts with
the Vega Quartet (incl. at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber music Festival). Atma
Trio presented concerts in Poland and Germany, in “Music At First”
series in PA, at Kansas State Univ., in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Connecticut Virtuosi. With pianist Matthew
Bengtson, Bednarz presented an all-Szymanowski program at the Philadelphia
Ethical Society (under the auspices of the Kosciuszko Foundation). In 2008-09
season and subsequent seasons Bednarz performs with Atma Trio in KS, GA, Poland,
US, UK (London), Israel and Egypt (among others in program “Kunst macht
frei”), and with Sinfonietta Polonia.
.