Maria Machowska-Szałach,
violinist; b. 9th May 1987 in Warsaw. She started playing violin at the age of 6. She graduated from the Zenon Brzewski Secondary Music School in Warsaw in the class of Mirosław Ławrynowicz and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the class of Konstanty Andrzej Kulka. She perfected her skills at master classes in Łańcut, Goch near Düsseldorf, Mount Royal College in Calgary, "Mozarteum" – Internationale Sommerakademie in Salzburg, at the Young Artists International Festival in Los Angeles.
Maria Machowska won 3rd Prize at the International Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Lublin (2003), 1st Prize at the International Niccolo Paganini Competition in Wrocław (2004), 5th Prize at the 13th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań (2006), and Special Prize of the Jury led by Gidon Kremer at the International Leopold Mozart Competition in Augsburg (2006).
In 2007 and 2012 the violinist received the “Young Poland” scholarship. She was the concertmaster of the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra between 2008-2014. Since the 2014/2015 artistic season she holds the position of concertmaster of the Warsaw Philharmonic.
Despite her young age, she has already been successful as an artist having performed many pieces of the most difficult violin repertoire in all European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada, China and Israel. As a soloist and a chamber player she appeared on the stages of such significant concert venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Great Hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and the Conservatories in Salzburg, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva, Basel, Locarno, Vienna and Madrid.
She has performed with the majority of Polish philharmonic orchestras, including the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Polish Radio Orchestra. Maria Machowska has worked with many outstanding conductors, such as Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jan Krenz, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Enrique Bariz,Tadeusz Strugała, Wojciech Rajski, Tadeusz Wojciechowski, Saulius Sondeckis, Massimiliano Caldi, Nikolai Diadiura, Łukasz Borowicz, Jerzy Swoboda, Tomasz Bugaj, Michał Dworzyński, Miguel Gomez Martinez, Daniel Raiskin, Joel Sachs, George Tchitchinadze, as well as notable artists – Ida Haendel, Augustin Dumay, Martha Argerich, Krzysztof Penderecki, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Eduard Schmieder, Wolfgang Marschner, Jacek Kaspszyk, Marc Minkowski. In 2003 she performed Pablo Sarasate’s Navarra in a duo with Vadim Brodsi during the concert on the International Day of Music at the Warsaw Philharmonic, which was broadcast live on Polish Television.
As a soloist and a chamber player she made an appearance at numerous festivals – La Folle Journée, Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, I Palpiti Festival of International Laureates, Polish Violin Masters String Festival, the Bronisław Huberman Violin Festival. She participated in the European concert tour of the Polish Chamber Orchestra during which the ensemble performed with Maxim Vengerov in the most renown European concert halls, including Berliner Philharmonie, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Barbican Center in London.
The artist has made recordings for TV stations in Poland, Japan, Germany, France and Switzerland. She has recorded for DUX and Arte Prealable labels. Her recordings have been released on Barbara Kaszuba’s album and the International Wieniawski Violin Competition CD chronicles.
Since 2012 she has been involved as a lecturer in the Sinfonia Varsovia Academy – an educational project designed to raise qualifications of the orchestral musicians. She has been assistant profesor at the Frederic Chopin Music University in Warsaw since 2013.
Maria Machowska is represented by the Ludwig van Beethoven Association.
updated: 2018 (ac)
Violinist's website: www.mariamachowska.com
