Michal Karol Szymanowski

Michal Karol Szymanowski has specialized in performing the works of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Thus, he is a natural for inclusion in our 11th Annual Paderewski Piano Festival in Raleigh. He recently published a CD of the Paderewski creations.

Although he appears in our Festival as this year's most mature artist-at age 36-his accomplishments began when he was quite young.

One of the most promising Polish pianists of the young generation, Micha? Karol Szymanowski was born in 1988 into a musical family. He graduated with honors from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where he studied piano with the renowned Katarzyna Popowa-Zydro? and symphonic-operatic conducting under Zygmunt Rychert. He honed his skills with Eldar Nebolsin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. At present he continues his piano education as a doctoral student and at the same time works as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater and at the Academy of Music in ?ód?.

Micha? has won top awards in a number of national and international piano competitions, including the International Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt, Germany, Mozarteum International Piano Competition in Aachen, Germany, the International Chopin Piano Competition in Daegu, Korea, the Zar?bski International Music Competition in Warsaw, the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Piano Competition in Katowice, the Paderewski International Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz, the International Competition in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev, and twice in the Polish National Chopin Piano Competitions in Warsaw. In 2015 he was the highest placed quarterfinalist in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Barcarolle in F sharp Major, Op. 60 - Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Laguna-A Poem for Piano, Op. 36 - Ludomir Ró?ycki (1853-1953)
Circle of Fifths (1947) - Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991)

INTERMISSION

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941)

Menuet in G minor, Op. 1
Preludium à capriccio, Op. 1
Introduction and toccata, Op. 6

Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op. 21
Allegro con fuoco
Andante ma non troppo

Polonaise in B Major, Op. 9 No. 6