Kwadrofonik

About the musicians:

The group was established in 2005 by joining two duos: percussion and piano. Magdalena Kordylasińska and Miłosz Pękala (Hob-Beats Duo) and Emilia Sitarz and Bartłomiej Wąsik (Lutosławski Piano Duo) are the only such quartet in Poland and one of few such in the world. Together they perform music from the 20th and 21st century, pieces composed for the group, transcripts of symphony pieces and their own work inspired by traditional Polish music. Working on their music, they often pursue improvisation, experiencing and searching for sounds in order to maximise the possibilities of two pianos and a percussion.

Their career began with the “Folklove” project, which was met with an enthusiastic welcome at the 9th Festival of Folk Music “New Tradition”. The group won the Grand Prix, the award of the President of Warsaw and the “Storm of Applause” award from the audience. Critics saw them as insightful and setting out new tracks in folk music. Since then, they have not stopped surprising – during the last few years, they created many transcriptions (B. Bartok’s “Mikrokosmos” and K. Szymanowski’s “Harnasie”), performed a dozen of premiere contemporary works and prepared the the first fully Polish performance of Steve Reich’s “Music for eighteen musicians”. The group is was awarded the Special Prize at the 3rd European Broadcasting Union “Svetozar Stracina” Competition in Bratislava for their modern, innovative and retaining tradition approach. In 2010 they showed their project “I was here. Fryderyk”, which is a musical collage inspired by the work of Chopin, traditional music and contemporary performance techniques.

The group performed in many cities in Poland, Europe, Middle East and Asia, on both Americas. Kwadrofonik has appeared at such venues as the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall and Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Izumi Hall (Osaka), the Central Conservatory concert hall in Beijing. They had numerous concerts on invitation of Embassies and Polish Institutes. After their concert in Chicago, the “New Herald Tribune” deemed the group visionary and their interpretation of Chopin’s “Prelude in e moll” as genious.

Kwadrofonik is appreciated by audiences not only for their high level of performance, but also for surprising ideas of playing percussion and piano instruments. Their concerts are beautiful performances, during which the group often uses dozens of instruments. They also conduct master courses and educational concerts on contemporary music for preschoolers. The quartet is artistic director of the Kwadrofonik Festival, which will be held for the second time in December 2016 at Teatr Nowy in Warsaw.

Group members:

• Magdalena Kordylasińska – percussion instruments
• Miłosz Pękala – percussion
• Emilia Sitarz – piano
• Bartłomiej Wąsik – piano