I can't remember the day I started playing the violin as it was when I was only three years old! My mother, who is a musicologist, went with my sister and I to music kindergarten and so for the first three years, music was pure fun for me and violin became a part of my life. After that, I went to the state music school in my town and, at the age of 13, went with my sister to study in another city. Here I also attended my first international orchestral workshop: that was my first big musical experience.
After graduating from high school, I decided to study in Kraków and this was a game-changing time in my career. I learned how to play in chamber ensembles, and how to improvise: I spent three beautiful years completing my bachelor studies there.
In my first year of my master's degree, I went on the Erasmus programme to Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. And then the real studying began.
In London, I found out what a real performance is and what playing the violin means to me. In the beginning, I started identifying how complex performance can be and what I want to achieve when playing for another person. I started to learn about the violin, how to solve all the problems in my technique and how to solve my musical questions. I learned how to make friends with stage fright! And I started to search for my purpose in making music. And this work is still in progress...
In London, I also earn a living by teaching, so I learn a lot from children. They are my big inspiration. They make me think and analyse the many problems we are all struggling with.
In the future, I would like to play more Baroque music, as in Poland we learn a lot about this musical style. In 2014, I went to Bachwoche in Stuttgart and played in the Academy Orchestra, which was a very inspiring time. I would love to continue exploring this sometimes light, sometimes deep but also uplifting style of music.
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
London, UK
Music Academy in Kraków
Poland
What do you do with your time when you’re not playing music?
I like cooking and surprising my family with new recipes of unusual dishes. I like skateboarding and I am still learning it. I discovered that I can improvise as I played a lot with my band in a Catholic church in Kraków in the past and now here in London. Improvising gives me lot of fun. I wrote three songs which you can find on YouTube.
What do you think concerts of the future should look like?
As a listener I always wonder how it would be to feel what the performer on the stage is feeling. I think maybe in the future we could sit together with the audience, musicians among the listeners and try to cope with the distance between musicians and to literally be all together in a moment of making the music. So we can all experience the art of music - the whole tension, temperature and emotions that it brings.