On Stage:

ANNA BUDZYŃSKA

This singer is best known for performing early and chamber music.

She graduated from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2010, where she studied under Professor Antonina Kowtunow, and from the A. Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2007, where she studied law with Professor Sławomira Wronkowska-Jaśkiewicz. Holder of a scholarship from the Marshal of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship in the field of culture. In 2023, she obtained a PhD in Arts. She started her music career as a soloist in the Academic Choir of the Adam Mickiewicz University, led by Jacek Sykulski. During her five-year time with the choir, she performed over 400 concerts around the world. She also performed on her own as part of the Nova Gaudia and Artis Sonus ensembles. She has improved her vocal technique at courses with famous opera singers like Cecilia Bartoli, Silvana Bazzoni Bartoli, Elizabeth Vidal, Teresa Żylis-Gara and Jadwiga Rappé. She made her debut on stage as Adela in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at the Musical Theatre in Poznań, where she was a soloist for 12 years. She has performed many roles, including Susanna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Arsena in Johann Strauss’s The Gypsy Baron, Valentina in Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and many others.

Over time, she has become interested in early music. She is the creator and a soloist of Ensemble del Passato, with which she performs music from the early Baroque era. They base their performances on historical improvisations. They has already performed at famous concert halls in Vienna, Berlin and Munich. She started a publishing series called Music from 400 years ago (DUX), which puts out a new album every year. So far, three volumes of the series have been released: Clori, 1622, Lucrezia, 1623 and Tirsis, 1624.

She also works with renowned Baroque ensembles like the {oh!} Orchestra and Arte dei Suonatori in cantata and oratorio repertoire. She performs concerts in Poland and other countries, and also takes part in famous music festivals. She has given solo recitals among others in Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan and Lithuania.

She is an active organiser of cultural life and has been President of the World of Possibilities Foundation since 2016. She also started and is the Artistic Director of the ‘Na Gotyckim Szlaku Festival in Western Poland’, as well as the concert series ‘Personal Music Encounters’ at EDGE Music Studio in Poznań and ‘Classics in the Open Air’ in Mosina. Privately she is a mother of three children.

RAFAŁ MAREK WIŚNIEWSKI

He graduated from the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk with honours in 2022. Currently, he works as a violin teacher at the Feliks Nowowiejski Primary and Secondary School of General and Music Education in Gdańsk.

He was an awardee of the scholarship under the ‘Young Poland’ scholarship programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN) for the best students, and the scholarships awarded by: the Rector of the Academy of Music, the Mayor of the City of Gdańsk  in recognition of his outstanding artistic achievements, as well as the Gdańsk Culture Scholarship – the Creators’ Fund, and many others.

He has won over 40 awards at international competitions.

Since 2024, he has also worked intensively as an arranger. His works have not only been played at premiere performance concerts, but also recorded. Noteworthy, one of his arrangements for string quartet and orchestra was performed in St. Mary’s Basilica at the 47th International Festival of Organ, Choral and Chamber Music.

As a soloist, he has performed with the orchestras of the School of General and Music Education in Gdańsk, the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, the BalticAlians chamber orchestra, and the Wojciech Kilar Polish Philharmonic Orchestra Sinfonia Baltica in Słupsk.

The violinist regularly performs on stage as a soloist, chamber musician, and an orchestra member. It is also worth mentioning that he has conducted quartets and chamber ensembles at many world premieres of musical compositions.

NOBILIS STRING ORCHESTRA

A group of young, ambitious and versatile artists of young generation. They all share immense sensitivity, musicality, and passion for music. Thanks to high versatility of the ensemble it can include in its repertoire compositions originating from different epochs, from the Baroque to contemporary times, but it is the early music which the orchestra finds particularly interesting and which they have chosen for their planned concerts.

SYLWIA JANIAK-KOBYLIŃSKA

A conductor, violinist, and promoter of modern artistic education. At the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk she holds the position of the Dean of the Faculty of Conducting, Composition, and Music Theory, sits on the Senate, and is a member of the Board of the Doctoral School. She is the founder of the Baltic Youth Philharmonic, the President of the SAJ Foundation, member of the Creative Poland Association, and the Art Director at the Oh!My Score company. She has been awarded with the Pomeranian Artistic Award, the Award for Young Creators from the City of Gdańsk, and the ‘Meritorious for the Polish Culture’ decoration. She won e.g. three special awards at the 9th G. Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Katowice, and awards at the 2nd and 4th International Competition ‘Musical Eagles’, also in the category of Conducting. She is active as a member of competition juries, teacher, and organizer of cultural events, combining her artistic passion with commitment to the community.

PATRYK DOPKE

Organist, church musician of the young generation. He graduated Church Music at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, where he studied organ playing with Prof. Bogusław Grabowski (liturgical playing and improvisation) and Prof. Andrzej Szadejko (performance of organ literature). In addition, he participated in interpretation courses led by Lorenzo Ghielmi, Harald Vogel and Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra. He is also a classical philologist and theologian. He uses knowledge from these fields in his interest in Gregorian chant. He is also interested in its reception in the field of Latin tradition, as well as its new form transformed by the Reformation – Protestant chant, and its application in organ literature. Since 2016, Patryk Dopke has been the second organist of the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gdańsk. Among the more important concerts he performed are a recital at St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck and at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.