Join us on Sunday, June 16 at 3PM at the Cyr Center in Stamford for the third concert of our 27th Season, featuring the Karkowska Sisters Duo. These talented siblings are known to us through a mystery friend who—after a concert they gave on Long Island last year—presented a Friends of Music card to them and suggested they contact us, which thankfully they did. We visited their Web site at karkowskaduo.org, which we suggest you do also, and were thoroughly impressed.
The Duo, Anna Karkowska on violin and Katarzyna Karkowska (nicknamed “Kasha”) on piano have just released a new CD. While they are superbly talented musicians, sister Kasha may also share a pleasantly humorous anecdote or two. This being Father’s Day, as is always the case for the June concert, we can promise any Dads in the audience that even if they are deaf and sadly cannot hear the music, these artists happen to be a treat for the eyes as well as a treat for the ears.
The internationally acclaimed, award-winning Karkowska Sisters Duo has toured both North America and Europe and has recorded for Polish National, Mexican and US television and radio including PBS in Buffalo, NY. Anna Karkowska, violin earned her Master of Music from the Juilliard School, while Kasha Karkowska, piano, earned her Master’s Degree from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland.
The Karkowska Sisters have performed in many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City, the Gusman Center for Performing Arts in Miami, the National Grand Theater in Warsaw, Poland and the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City.
The Duo’s performances have won standing ovations, encores and rave reviews: “Stunning” (Mount Vernon News); “Amazing” (Chicago Union Journal); and “Breathtaking, part shtick, part virtuosity…the audience went wild” (Southampton News). They charm audiences with their virtuosity, exquisite musicianship, unforgettable stories and unique sense of humor.
To read more about Anna Karkowska and Katarzyna Karkowska, visit their Web site at karkowskaduo.org.
The Golden Age of Virtuosos
| Fryderyk Chopin (1810 – 1849), arr. Bronislaw Huberman | Valse Op. 64 No. 2 |
| Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) | I Palpiti Op.13 |
| Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886), arr. Hans Sitt | Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 |
Intermission
| Henryk Wieniawski (1835 – 1880) | Theme Original Varie Op.15 |
| Pablo de Sarasate (1844 – 1908) | Carmen Fantasy Op.15 |
June 16, 2013 Performers
Don Estep heralded Anna Karkowska as a violinist “destined for stardom” in the News Journal after her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with they Lexington Philharmonic conducted by George Zak. Anna Karkowska was born in Lodz, Poland and made her successful solo debut at the age of fifteen at the prestigious String Masters Festival with Zielona Gora Philharmonic playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
Her many prizes and awards include First Prize at the International Competition of the Aspen Music Festival and at the WGUC Radio Station International Competition; Top Prizes at the National Competitions for Young Violinists in Poland; and one of the most precious awards for a violinist: an annual loan of the Guarneri del Gesu “Sennhauser” violin from the elite Stradivari Society. So far Anna has been the only Polish recipient of this award. She has also received the Dorothy Starling Foundation Scholarship, Satterwaite Scholarship, G.M. Grunin Prize and J.S. and Barbara P. Johnson Scholarship.
Described by Daniel Barenboim as “a very gifted young violinist,” Anna Karkowska is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, OH (Bachelor of Music) where she studied with P. Milewski, and of the prestigious Juilliard School (Master of Music). As a recipient of a full scholarship at Juilliard she studied with D. DeLay and H. Kang. She has performed as a soloist with many orchestras including the Penderecki Festival Orchestra, the Lexington Philharmonic, Sinfonia Cracovia, the Polish-American Symphony Orchestra, the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, Paderewski Symphony Orchestra, the Fairmont Chamber Orchestra and the Starling Orchestra and in many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Ford Performing Arts Center. She has also been invited to the International Mozart Festivals in both Miami, Fl and Krakow, Poland and to record for television and radio in Poland and in the United States.
Recently Anna Karkowska recorded her first album, Virtuosity with the London Symphony Orchestra, which includes Paganini’s Violin Concerto No.1, Hoffmann’s Violin Concerto (World Premiere), Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and Wieniawski’s Faust Fantasy. Her performances have won the hearts of audiences and the press, eliciting high praise such as “Stunning…better played than Itzhak Perlman’s own recording” (Mount Vernon News), and “Fabulous mastery of the violinist’s art” (Electorial News, Krakow, Poland).
Read more about Anna Karkowska at the Karkowska Sister’s Web site, karkowskaduo.org
“A superbly talented young pianist” (David Mulbury, DMA, FAGO, University of Cincinnati) Katarzyna “Kasha” Karkowska was born in Lodz, Poland. She studied piano at the Bacewicz Music Academy in Lodz with A. Krochmalska and Professor T. Chmielewski and she graduated with honors earning her Master’s Degree in Solo Piano from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, in the class of the internationally renowned pianist Bronislawa Kawalla.
In Warsaw, besides studying solo piano, Kasha Karkowska became a successful chamber music player, performing in a variety of chamber music groups and participating as an accompanist at the prestigious International Music Festivals in Zagan and Lancut, Poland.
As a part of the Karkowska Sisters Duo, Katarzyna Karkowska won First Prize at the WGUC International Competition and has recorded for Polish National TV and Radio and has appeared on PolVision (Chicago) and PBS (Buffalo).
Read more about Katarzyna “Kasha” Karkowska at the Karkowska Sister’s Web site, karkowskaduo.org