Wąsik, Bartek International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn

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One of the most prominent and versatile Polish pianists, he is also an arranger and composer, prize winner of many international competitions. His other accolades include the Polityka Passport Award, Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Academy, and the Coryphaeus of Polish Music. He is a cofounder and member of such ensembles as Kwadrofonik and Lutosławski Piano Duo (with pianist Emilia Sitarz), with which he has appeared for more than 20 years. Both ensembles have won numerous international competition prizes and built a spectacular repertoire now comprising approximately 150 works from the Baroque to contemporary. With these ensembles, Wąsik has premiered numerous compositions. 

He also pursues an independent individual career, which has attracted the attention of critics and audiences alike. He has appeared solo and with ensembles throughout Europe, in Asia and both Americas. At Carnegie Hall and Chicago Symphony Hall he played his own arrangements of Chopin’s works. At Berlin Philharmonic he presented (with Kwadrofonik) his original arrangement of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring as well as music from the CD Folklove (Folk Album of the Year). His project titled “New Warsaw” (12 new arrangements of songs about Warsaw, with Stanisława Celińska and the Royal String Quartet) met with an enthusiastic critical acclaim and won “the Guarantee of Culture” and “Wdecha” awards. Wąsik’s collaborators include Bartek Konopka (the film New Warsaw), Jan Komasa (the spectacle Xenophonia. A Symphony for the Other), Artur Rojek, Adam Strug (The Folk Requiem – Folk Album of the Year), Katarzyna Nosowska and Dorota Miśkiewicz (Lutosławski, Tuwim – Songs Not Only for Children – a Gold Record). 

In 2020 he wrote (with Mela Koteluk) song settings of poems by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (released in his own arrangements on Baczyński. Astronomy of the Poet, Mela Koteluk & Kwadrofonik – Fryderyk Award). Another Fryderyk came in 2021 (for Kora with Ralph Kamiński). 

In 2020 at Warsaw’s Królikarnia Wąsik inaugurated an original piano recital cycle titled Pianorizon, featuring refined works at the intersection of classical and alternative music (Glass, Cage, Adams, Sakamoto, Mykietyn) as well as his own compositions. The artist’s first solo album, Daydreamer, featuring his arrangements of Radiohead songs, was released late in 2022. In 2024 he began his collaboration with Polish Radio Channel 3, where he presents weekly broadcasts on various musical subjects. Autumn 2024 will see the premiere of his second solo album, dedicated exclusively to his own compositions.