Employees

prof. dr hab.

Artur Kasperek

bassoon

Born in Lublin, where he graduated from the Karol Lipiński Secondary Music School, bassoon class of Grażyna Woć-Kowalik. He completed studies at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in the class of Professor Bogumił Gadawski, and developed his instrument skills under Professor Klaus Thünemann.

He is the prize-winner of solo and chamber music competitions, including 3^rd prize at the chamber music competition in Potsdam in 1998.

He is a co-founder and first bassoonist of the Varsovia Bassoon Quartet and a longtime member of the Varsovia Nova quintet, with which he performed dozens of concerts at festivals across Europe.

He has been working with leading Polish orchestras for many years. He was a soloist with, among others, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic (1990–1994); in 1999 he was the first bassoonist of the Polish Festival Orchestra of Krystian Zimerman, with which he recorded both Piano Concertos by Fryderyk Chopin (for Deutsche Gramophone label) honoured with many prestigious awards.

He currently heads the wind instruments section of the Orchestra of the Great Theatre — National Opera (he has cooperated with the orchestra since 1992), and is the soloist of the orchestra Sinfonietta Cracovia and the Polish Radio Orchestra (since 1994). He also cooperates with the ensembles: Concerto Avenna, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Ensemble de Narol, Sinfonia Varsovia, and New Art Ensemble, Gruppo di Tempera (with which he recorded a debut album in September 2013).

On his scorecard he has dozens of solo performances in Poland and abroad (Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Belarus) with such orchestras as the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Concerto Avenna, Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Capella Bydgostiensis, Silesian Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestras in Białystok, Lublin, Szczecin, Rzeszów, or Chamber Orchestra “Orpheus”, with which performed concertos by Mozart, Weber, Hummel, Vivaldi, Richard Strauss, Panufnik and Villa-Lobos.

He has collaborated with renowned conductors, such as: Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Claudio Abbado, Christoph Eschenbach. He cooperates with Sinfonia Iuventus and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, conducting rehearsals with wind instruments sections of these ensembles. As a soloist and chamber musician he does recordings for the Polish Radio and the Polish Television.

He works as a teacher and his alumni win numerous awards at competitions, they play in leading orchestras and are among the most outstanding young Polish bassoonists. He conducts bassoon seminars and workshops and is a jury member at many competitions.

In 2012 he obtained his doctoral degree at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, currently he is Assistant Professor at the Chair of Wind Instruments.