Szymanowski Quartet

Members of the Szymanowski Quartet, drawn from Poland, earned recognition on a Polish classical music site as ambassadors of Polish music, even though extensive training occurred in Germany and the ensemble has promoted contemporary works from both Western and Eastern European traditions. Violinists Agata Szymczewska and Robert Kowalski, violist Volodia Mykytka, and cellist Monika Leskovar formed the group in Warsaw during 1995 and have maintained their base there through several periods of residency abroad. Studies followed at the University of Music and Drama in Hannover with Hatto Beyerle, supplemented by master classes from Isaac Stern, Walter Levin, and the Juilliard, Emerson, Amadeus, and Guarneri quartets. Designation by the BBC as New Generation Artists for a three-year term beginning in 2001 marked a decisive career advance; at the conclusion of that period the quartet issued a BBC recording of quintets by Brahms and Mozart.

More than ten releases have since appeared on labels such as SWR Music in Germany, CAvi-music, Hyperion, Decca, and Haenssler, encompassing notable accounts of Russian repertoire alongside Polish works. For CAvi-music the ensemble produced a trilogy of recordings devoted to the quartets of Karol Szymanowski, situating the composer’s output within the artistic environments of Paris, Vienna, and Moscow. Live programs regularly highlight contemporary music, among them pieces by Krzysztof Penderecki, Sofia Gubaidulina, Magnus Lindberg, and Myroslav Skoryk, with several new compositions written expressly for the quartet. Frequent tours have taken the group across Poland and Germany; among 2018 engagements was a first appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall.

The Szymanowski Award, conferred in 2005 by the foundation honoring the composer whose name the quartet bears, went to the ensemble as the first string quartet recipient. A Polish government medal recognizing contributions to national culture followed in 2007. The next year the musicians established the Lviv Chamber Music Festival in the historic city designated a UNESCO World Heritage site on the Polish-Ukrainian border.