ATMA TRIO

Three artistic individualities of Atma Trio are bound not only by their love for chamber music but also by their musical temperaments. Critics refer to them as "excellent musicians who truly know the art of performing chamber music". The “Atma” Piano Trio usually breaks audience attendance records during their artistic tours.

The Trio performed in the United States, Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden. It participated in several prestigious festivals, such as “Days of Karol Szymanowski's Music” in Zakopane, “Chopinesque Confrontations” in Antonin, “International Festival of Organ and Chamber Music” in Slupsk, “International Musical Art Institute Festival” in Fryeburg, Maine, Mozart Festival in Poznan, “International Chopin and Friends Festival” in New York City, and many others.

The artists began their collaboration as students. Pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski and Blanka Bednarz, violinist, often performed as a duo during their studies at the University of Kansas. Blanka and cellist/husband Cheung Chau met as graduate students at the New England Conservatory. Currently, Blanka Bednarz teaches violin at Dickinson College, Cheung Chau works at Georgia Southern University, and Slawomir Dobrzanski at Kansas State University.

In 2002, Dobrzanski, Bednarz and Chau formed the Atma Trio. Inspired by the music of Karol Szymanowski and enchanted with Szymanowski's favorite dwelling, Villa Atma in the Tatra Mountain resort town of Zakopane in Poland, the artists chose the Sanskrit word "atman" (soul) for their ensemble. Szymanowski's only piano trio did not survive the composer's scrutiny. Yet the members of Atma Trio often perform his works for solo piano, violin and piano or transcriptions for cello and piano, as well as his violin concertos. The Trio's programs are usually diverse, featuring not only trios, but solos, duos, and larger works in collaboration with guest performers. The Atma Trio collaborates with such artists as violinists Joanna Kurkowicz, Natalia Walewska- Stolarska and Kin Chau, violists Timothy Deighton, Marcin Murawski and Lukasz Lisowski, pianists Jennifer Blyth, Teres Löf, Martin Hellstrom, Joanna Michna, Rafal Lewandowski, clarinetists Linda Cionitti and Fan Lei.

Last season, “Atma” Piano Trio toured Lithuania and Poland; in the U.S., they performed in New York City, Providence, RI, at Lawrence Conservatgory, WI, at Georgia State University, in Music! Gettysburg series, PA. In 2007 the trio performs for the Chopin Foundation in Floryda, joins forces with members of the Mendelssohn Piano Trio, performs at Kansas State University and in Poland and Germany. In October, the Trio will present Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Connecticut Virtuosi. Slawomir Dobrzanski is a versatile pianist frequently performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras. He has performed extensively in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Paraguay, Peru, and throughout the United States. Dr. Dobrzanski is a prizewinner of several competitions for young artists such as the MTNA Wurlitzer Collegiate Artist Competition in Spokane, WA (1993, National First Runner- up), the Naftzger Young Artist Competition in Wichita, KS (Grand Prize, and Piano Division Prize, 1993), and the Lincoln Symphony Young Artist Competition in Lincoln, NE (First Prize, 1993) and the University of Connecticut Concerto Competition (1998). He is also a recipient of the Donald DeLaski Artistic Fellowship Grant (2000). Slawomir Dobrzanski graduated from the prestigious Chopin Academy of Music in War- saw, Poland, where he was a student of Prof. Regina Smendzianka. In the years 1992-1994 he studied at the University of Kansas, and has taken part in international master classes at the Inter- national Festival of New Music at Darmstadt and the Lucerne Conservatory in Switzerland. In May 2001, Mr. Dobrzanski completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT under the tutelage of Neal Larrabee. Dr. Dobrzanski has recorded solo and chamber music by Lutoslawski, Szymanowski, Chopin, Malawski, Rybicki, Kisielewski, Tausig, and Brahms for Polish radio and public televi- sion in Wroclaw, Poland. His performance of the Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto was broad- cast live through Nebraska Public Television Station (1993). He also performed concerto reper- toire with the "Connecticut Virtuosi" Chamber Orchestra, the "Amadeus" Orchestra, the "Leopoldinum" Orchestra, and the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, Poland. Active also as a pedagogue, Dr. Dobrzanski was a member of the music faculties at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI. Currently he works as Assis- tant Professor of Piano at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. Dr. Dobrzanski’s recent appearances include concerts in New York City (at the Steinway Hall, The Kosciuszko Foundation, and the Polish Consulate General), Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, FL, Buffalo, NY, Corpus Christi and El Paso, TX and many others. He frequently tours Europe and the USA as a member of the Atma Trio.

Blanka Bednarz enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, concertmaster and teacher. She has concertized in Europe and the United States, appearing on stages such as Jordan Hall in Boston, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Miller Hall and Koschuszko Foundation house in New York City, Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Poznan Philharmonic Hall, Cardiff City Hall and others. She has appeared as a soloist with the New England Conservatory Honors Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, Dickinson and Bethany College Orchestras, University of Kansas Camerata, the Great Poland Symphony and Sinfonietta Polonia. She served as concertmaster for NEC Honors Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, and Sinfonietta Polonia, among others. Ms. Bednarz was particularly influential in the establishment of the NEC Chamber Orchestra. Bednarz is a recipient of several awards, from the Presser Foundation, the St. Bololph Club Foundation and the Tourjée Society and a winner in the Naftzger Young Artist Competition. She took the second prize at the Jefferson Symphony Concerto Competition in Denver. She has collaborated with artists such as Eric Rosenblith, James Dunham, Lawrence Lesser, Joanna Kurkowicz, Irina Muresanu, Adrian Levine, Timothy Deighton, Barry Snyder of Eastman School of Music, Sergei Schepkin, Ning An, Heng-Jin Park, the Corigliano Quartet and Alarm Will Sound. Ms. Bednarz studied violin with Eric Rosenblith (MM and DMA), Michele Auclair, Ben Sayevich (BM) and Jadwiga Kaliszewska, and viola with James Dunham. Her coaches were members of the Cleveland, Guarneri and Borromeo Quartets, James Buswell, Leon Kirchner and the late Eugene Lehner, among others. Ms. Bednarz played with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the SibeliusAcademy Orchestra and Sinfonietta Polonia (www.sinfoniettapolonia.pl) an unique orchestral training program she and her husband/conductor Cheung Chau established. An active chamber musician and advocate of new music, she performed with the Red and White ensemble at Boston's Athenaeum and on WGBH series, and with several other chamber ensembles: appearing in Jordan Hall in First Monday Series, on Kilmer Series, and as guest artist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston. As a member of the Huntington Piano Trio, Ms. Bednarz performed in 1999 at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall under the auspices of MidAmerica Productions. The trio has also been featured on Boston's WGBH Radio and WGBH summer and outreach concert series and Polish Radio. The trio released a CD under A.W. Promotions, and toured Poland in 2000, performing in part under the auspices of the Karol Szymanowski Association. Tygodnik Podhalanski described the trio's performance as beautifully sensitive, and the Boston Globe praised its eloquent rendition of Kirchner's Second Trio in Boston. In 2002 Blanka Bednarz established, with cellist Cheung Chau and pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski, the Atma Trio (www.atmatrio.org). The ensemble toured Poland twice since then, winning critical acclaim. Gazeta Wyborcza praised, for instance, Ms. Bednarz's "passionate performance and artistic maturity." The Trio performed under the auspices of the Szymanowski and Hofmann Associations, the National Museum of Instruments, the Baltic Sea Culture Center, Wielkopolskie Centrum Chopinowskie and Antonina Kawecka Foundation. The Polish Radio and TV broadcast their performances, and the Trio broke several concert attendance records. Ms. Bednarz joined the faculty of Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA in the fall of 2002. She is currently completing her dissertation towards DMA degree at New England Conservatory. Prior to teaching at DC, Ms Bednarz served as a teaching assistant to Professor Eric Rosenblith at the New England Conservatory, has taught at the NEC Preparatory and Continuing Education School and Bethany College. She has coached the NECCO with Donald Palma and chamber ensembles at the International Musical Arts Institute (IMAI) in Maine. She has also given master classes at NEC, for College and Preparatory Divisions, and at the University of Kansas, Lawrence Concervatory, Messiah College, Mercer University, Wichita State University, and Penn State and leads orchestral workshops with Sinfonietta Polonia. Bednarz’s former students now continue at Londy School of Music and NYU, for example. In 2003 Capstone Records released a CD with "Concerto Concertante per sei Instrumenti" by Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, recorded by J. Kurkowicz and Bednarz with other Bostonian instrumentalists. Soon another disc of Gawlick’s chamber music featuring Bednarz will be released. This season Bednarz performs with members of Alarm Will Sound, with Atma Trio in Miami and Fort Lauderdale under the auspices of the Chopin Foundation, in Music At First series in PA, with the Connecticut Virtuosi, in recital at the Kosciuszko Foundation in Philadelphia, at Kansas State University.

Dr. Cheung Chau, cellist/conductor, is a member of the Atma Piano Trio, with violinist/wife Blanka Bednarz and pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski. The ensemble has performed in Germany, Sweden, Lithuania and the US, and toured extensively in Poland. Their concerts met with high ac- claim and several audience attendance records were broken. The highlights of the trio’s last season included appearances at the Mozart Festival in Poznan, Poland, the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the Music, Gettysburg! Series in Pennsylvania, the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, Mer- cer University, Georgia Southern University, the Polish Institute in Vilnius, Lithuania. In the cur- rent season, the trio presents concerts at Dickinson College, Music at First series, concerts under the auspices of the Chopin Foundation in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Beethoven’s Triple Concer- to with the Connecticut Virtuosi, concerts at Kansas State University, and concerts in Poland and Germany with the American Virtuosi, among others. Formerly, Chau was a member of the Hunt- ington Piano Trio, which performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Lake Placid Center for Performing Arts, live concerts in Boston on WGBH, etc. Chau began cello lessons at age seven and received top prices at the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, including first price at the Commercial Radio Prize Competition at age twelve – the youngest musician ever to receive this price. At fourteen, Dr. Chau was invited to perform as soloist, playing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The Sing Dao Daily described him as “a rare gem in the musical field.” Dr. Chau received a ful- l-scholarship from the R.D.Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, the Harid Conser- vatory and also the Yale School of Music. He recently received his double doctorate in conducting and cello performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston, the first double doctorate in the conservatory’s history. His cello teachers include Eleonore Schoenfeld, Aldo Parisot, Colin Carr, and Johanne Perron. Prior to his engagement with Georgia Southern University, Chau served as cello faculty at Bethany College, chamber music faculty at New England Conservatory Prepara- tory School in Boston and director of the chamber music program at Phillips Exeter Academy. Cheung Chau is the music director of the Southern Georgia Symphony and Director of Orchestral Activities at Georgia Southern University. He has appeared frequently as guest conduc- tor with orchestras in Europe and Asia, including Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Phil- harmonic Orchestra (where he is a regular guest conductor and assistant to Edo de Waart since 2004), Filharmonia Swietokrzyska in Kielce, Wieniawski Filharmonic in Lublin, Filharmonia Sudecka of Walbrzych and Filharmonia Podlaska in Poland. In Sweden, Dr. Chau conducted the Gavle and the Bollnas Symphony Orchestras and appeared frequently as guest conductor with the SAMI Sinfonietta. In Finland, Dr. Chau conducted the Vaasa City Orchestra as well as the Sibelius Academy Orchestra. In China, Dr. Chau conducted the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra and will guest conduct the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra in December 2006. In the com- ing season he will also conduct the Barndenburg Symphony and the Das Berlin Sinfonie Orchestr- er in Germany as well as the Filharmonia Zabranska in Poland. Chau’s principal conducting teachers are the acclaimed Jorma Panula and Frank Battisti. Chau has participated in conducting master classes with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Valery Gergiev, David Zinman, Alan Gilbert, Murry Sidlin, Kirk Trevor and Mariusz Smolij. Chau is music director of Sinfonietta Polonia, an orchestra he co-founded in 2004. In its opening season, the orchestra was invited to perform in the Mozart Festival in Poznan and to inau- gurate the Wieniawski Festival in Szczawno, performed in the National Museum, the White and the UAM Halls in Poznan. The orchestra was recorded live on Ostrow Television and Poznan Ra- dio. It premiered John Rutter’s Requiem in Poznan and in Ostrow (the performance was nominat- ed for the best cultural event of the year for the city), and gave a world premiere of Zrodlo by Ger- man-American composer Ralf Gawlick, written in honor of John Pope II and based on his poems. Chau’s unique musical personality and his ability to inspire musicians are much sought- after. The Polish Gazeta Wyborcza praised Chau for his “air of freshness and uniqueness” and for “his ability to create pastel landscapes of sound with very dynamic, poignant gestures.” His inter- pretations of Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture and Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony were “most convincing, persuasive.” The Xiamen Business News wrote “[Chau Cheung] performed with strong resolution and courage. He was full of enthusiasm, confidence, and determination, ex- pressed his feelings and led the orchestra very efficiently, dedicating to the audience an exquisite performance.” Sinfonietta Polonia, an unique orchestra in Poland, has promptly earned interest and acclaim. Glos Wielkopolski described the orchestra as having “priceless enthusiasm, and consider- able abilities”, and continued that “In Hebrides Ouverture…and also in the bravura interpretation of Beethoven’s I Symphony, the talented and very capable conductor Cheung Chau was able to get the young zealots to present much truly good symphonic playing and considerable ability of en- semble collaboration.” A reviewer of a recent concert wrote in Gazeta Wyborcza: “the ensemble has a chance to become competition for the Poznan Philharmonic.”

Concerts

2007 January 20 Chopin Foundation, Miami, Florida January 21 Chopin Foundation Fort Landerdale, Florida June-July concerts in Poland and Germany October 19 Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Connecticut Virtuosi October 28 Music at First Series, Carlisle, PA

2006 January 21 with Karla Qualls , Statesboro, Georgia February 26 Atma Trio with Fan Lei and Kin Chau at Lawrence University Conservatory, Appleton, WI April 14 with Natalia Da Roza, Georgia Southern University April 15 Atma Trio, Georgia Southern University June concert tour in Poland and Lithuania

2005 March 14 with Martin Hellmstrom, Bolllnas, Sweden March 31 with Giselle Hyllier and Roger McVey, Mercer University, GA, USA Oct. 29 International House, Providence, RI Oct. 30 Music! Gettysburg series, Gettysburg, PA Nov. 5 VII International Chopin & Friends Festival, The Kosciuszko Foundation House, New York Nov. 6 with Linda Cionitti and Carla Qualls, Averitt Center, Statesboro, GA Dec. 10 with Ewa Murawska and Marcin Murawski, III Mozart Festival, Poznan, Poland

2004 Jan. 3 with Joanna Michna, Bürgerhaus Am Alten Stadttor, Leimen, Jan. 4 with Joanna Michna, Galerie Melnikow, Heidelberg, Germany Feb. 28 with Jennifer Blyth & Timothy Deighton, Dickinson College, PA, Feb. 29 with Jennifer Blyth & Timothy Deighton, Penn State University, PA, July 3 with Natalia Walewska-Stolarska, Kornik Castle, Kornik, Poland July 9 White Hall of Poznan Town Council, Poznan, Poland July 11 Chopinesque Confrontations, Hunting Palace of the Counts Radziwill in An- tonin, Poland July 18 XXVII Days of Szymanowski's Music, Zakopane, Poland, Aug. 4 XXII Festival of Organ and Chamber Music, Slupsk, Poland Aug. 10 with Natalia Walewska-Stolarska, "Music in Landmarks of Old Gdansk" se- ries, Gdansk, Poland Sept. 26 University of Rhode Island, USA Nov. 7 with Giselle Hillyer, Dickinson College Nov. 29 II Mozart Festival, Poznan, Poland, Dzialynski Palace, with Lukasz Lisowski

2003 Jan. 3 Club of Music and Literature, Wroclaw, Poland Jan. 4 Museum of Musical Instruments, Poznan, Poland Jan. 5 Gorka's Castle in Szamotuly, Poland Jan. 6 The Old Town Hall, Gdansk, Poland Jan. 7 Pomeranian Dukes Castle in Slupsk, Poland March 26 with Teres Löf, Royal Conservatory Stockholm, Sweden July with Timothy Deighton, Adrian Levine, Michael Freyhan, Brant Bayless, In- ternational Musical Art Institute, ME, USA Sept 14 Carlisle Musical Club, PA, USA

What is said about ATMA TRIO

“ Sale Grobliczow zaludnil tlum, jakiego swiat nie widzial. Trzeba bylo dostawiac krzesla…zostal pobity 54-letni record frekwencyjny popularnych muzealnych koncertow sylwestrowych… Kon- cert stal na bardzo dobrym, profesjonalnym poziomie. Atma Trio wie, co to jest granie kameralne, czyli odbieranie impulsow od partnera, wsluchiwanie sie w siebie nawzajem…Maja to we krwi, a dla mnie najciekawsze bylo wsluchiwanie sie w dialogi skrzypaczki i wiolonczelisty. W sa- lonowym Trio G-dur Haydna Cheung Chau pokazal, jak umie roznicowac sposoby wydobywania dzwieku, urozmaicac frazowanie, dodawac koloru (…) Skrzypaczka w obecnosci wiolonczelisty jakby dostawala skrzydel, z zapalem brala udzial w rozmowkach, przkomarzaniach (u Haydna) albo w zawodzeniach, nemietnych wyzwaniach i tanecznych pas (u Piazzolli). Pianista przebieral palcami po klawiszach blyskotliwie i perliscie. Jego elegancki styl gry byl do muzyki Haydna jak znalazl. (…) [W] interpretacji Sonaty Es-dur Richarda Straussa na skrzypce i fortepian…Blanka Bednarz …szalala. Ekpresja, duzy dzwiek, dojrzalosc, to wszystko bylo bardzo potrzebne, bardzo stylowe…”

[Groblicz Hall was crowded beyond expectations. Additional chairs needed to be brought in…54- year attendance record at the popular museum New Year’s Eve concerts was broken… Concert was presented at a very high, professional level. Atma Trio truly know what it means to play chamber music, how to converse, take impulses from partners, listen one to another.. They have this in their blood, and for me it was most interesting to hear the dialogues of the violinist and the cellist. In Haydn’s salon-like Trio in G-major Cheung Chau showed his ability to vary the sound, phrasing, color (…) In his presence the violinist as if took flight, avidly participating in the conver- sations, teasing (in Haydn), or projecting moments of utter sadness, passionate challenges, and dance-like pas (in Piazzolla). The pianist’s fingers caressed the keyboard with brilliance and pearl- like clarity. His elegant style suited Haydn perfectly. (…) [In] the interpretation of Richard Strauss’s Sonata in E-flat major for violin and piano Blanka Bednarz was unstoppable. Expressive- ness, big sound, maturity—all this was very necessary, very stylistically appropriate…] Jolanta Brozda, Gazeta Wielkopolska nr 4, Jan. 6, 2003

“Mistrzowskim wystepem Atma Trio z USA zainaugurowane zostaly ‘Wieczory Zamkowe’ w Korniku”

[‘Castle Evening’ in Kornik began with a masterful peformance by Atma Trio from USA”] Malgorzata Derwich, Glos Wielkopolski, July 4, 2004

“Niedzielny natomiast wieczor w Galerii Hasiora zgromadzil fanow polsko-amerykanskiego Tria Atma, majacego juz honorowe obywatelstwo festiwalu… Zakopianski koncert byl ogniwem ogolnopolskiego tournee tego sympatycznego zespolu.”

[Sunday evening in Hasior Gallery assembled the fans of Polish-American Atma Trio that has al- ready earned honorary citizenship of the festival.. The concert in Zakopane was a link in a chain of concerts this amiable group presents on tour throughout Poland.” Andrzej Glowaczewski, director of XXXVII Days of Music by K. Szymanowski Festival, Zakopane, Tygodnik Podhalanski, July 25, 2004

“Odbyla sie ciekawa uroczystosc jesli chodzi o muzyke kameralna. Byl to wystep Atma Trio… Przyznaje, ze Slawomir Dobrzanski, Blanka Bednarz i Cheung Chau sa wytrawnymi muzykami i Atma Trio szczegolnie uwiodlo mnie swoim wykonaniem tria C-dur J. Haydna i w Kwartecie Fortepianowym g-moll W. A. Mozarta. Blanka Bednarz jest rowniez koncertmistrzem orkiestry Sinfonietta Polonia…wiele zapalu, wiele pieknych momentow muzycznych. Dobrze sie stalo, ze ta orkiestra zaistniala. Wszyscy trzymamy kciuki.”

[This was an interesting celebration as far as chamber music is concerned. Atma Trio performed… I have to admit that Slawomir Dobrzanski, Blanka Bednarz and Cheung Chau are truly sophisticat- ed musicians, and that their performances of Haydn’s C-major Trio and Mozart’s Piano Quartet in g-minor were particularly alluring. Blanka Bednarz is also concertmaster of Sinfonietta Polonia… There is much passion, many beautiful musical moments. It is very good that this orchestra came into existence. We wish it very well.] Alina Kurczewska, Radio Merkury Review, Dec. 2004

“I am very happy with your performance and would like to thank you once again for your role in the inauguration of the VII Festival Chopin and Friends. Mr. Leszek Dlugosz was delighted with you, as was Mr. Kazimierz Wilk, artist painter from Cracow. You were a wonderful attraction at the opening of the festival” Mr. Marian Zak of New York Dance & Arts Innovations, direc- tor of the festival, Kosciuszko Foundation House, New York City, Nov. 2005

“Numerous audience rewarded Atma Trio with ardent applause” nyt.pl, New York, Nov. 13, 2005

“Atma Trio…did not disappoint…The audience received them well, and they left with a standing ovation” Ernest Barteldes, nycny.com, New York, Nov. 11, 2005

“Nie dotarlo niestety, Varsovia Trio. ‘Problemy wizowe’—tak mowi oficjalny komunikat... Wys- tepujace, niejako w zastepstwie gwiazd, w inauguracyjny wieczor Atma Trio, zachwyca. Zach- wyca doskonale wykonanie utworow Szopena i Ravela…”

[Varsovia Trio, unfortunately, was not able to come.’Visa problems’—this is the official word. Atma Trio that has stepped in for the stars at the inaugural evening thrills. It thrills with its excel- lent renditions of works by Chopin and Ravel…] Marek Rygielski, Super Express USA, New York, Nov. 18, 2005