ŁUKASZEWSKI, PAWEŁ (B.1968)

Maciej Zagórski is a pianist and teacher, and is a laureate of the Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz (1986) and the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk (1990). He has a particular interest in Polish piano music from the pre-Chopin era and in contemporary works. He has performed widely in Europe, Japan, Palestine, Russia and the United States, both as a soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician. Maciej Zagórski studied in Częstochowa at the Music School, in Warsaw at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, and in Vienna at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst. His teachers were Henryka Zasempa-Kozera, Kazimierz Gierżod, Maria Stojek, Krystyna Borucińska and Walter Fleischmann. He has been associated with the Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa since 1991 (a university professor since 2008) where he currently serves as President of the Music Council.

Award-winning Polish composer, Paweł Łukaszewski, is one of today’s most distinctive creators of contemporary sacred music. The Nocturnes for piano, based on some of his own sacred pieces, are inspired by the cosmos, with each nocturne named after a newly discovered bright star in constellations including Vela, Scorpius and the Southern Cross. Łukaszewski takes the listener on a journey through the beauty of the night sky with these intimate and atmospheric sound paintings.