Prominent Poles
Wanda Wilkomirska (Jolanta Rakowska), violinist, educator
Born: January 11, 1929, Warsaw, Poland
Early days.Wanda Wilkomirska first learned the violin from her father, Alfred, then she studied at the Lodz Academy of Music, graduating in 1947. She graduated from the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest in 1950. She performed in Paris, which led to Henryk Szeryng asking her to study with him. She won prizes at competitions in Geneva (1946), Budapest (1949) and Leipzig (1950). She shared 2nd prize with Julian Sitkovetsky; in the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznan(1952).
Career. In 1955, Wanda Wilkomirska performed at the rebuilt Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, with the Poland National Philharmonic Orchestra. She became the orchestra's principal soloist and gave many performances with the orchestra around the world. The American impresario Sol Hurok introduced her to the enthusiastic U.S. and Canadian markets. She has since performed in over 50 countries, in all continents. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wanda Wilkomirska gave an average of 100 concerts per year.In 1969, she gave 37 performances in Australia (a country she later emigrated to). These interpretations won her great acclaim. In 1973, she was the first violinist to perform a solo recital in the newly built Sydney Opera House. In 1976 she helped to inaugurate the Barbican Hall in London with a performance of Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto. In 1982, during the period of martial law in Poland, Wanda Wilkomirska announced during a concert tour in the West that she would not return to Poland at the end of the tour. One of her sons, Artur, also defected to West Germany. In 1983, she accepted the chair of music professor at the Heidelberg-Mannheim Hochschule fuer Musik. Since that time, teaching has become her great passion and an opportunity to share her instrumental skills and experience as a musician with the next generation of virtuosos. In 1999 she joined the teaching staff of the Sydney Conservatory of Music and since February 2001 has also worked for the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. Wanda Wilkomirska continues to be a part of musical life in Europe. Wanda Wilkomirska has often performed in a piano trio, accompanied by her sister Maria at the piano and her brother Kazimierz on the cello, as the Wilkomirska Trio. She has also played with Zimerman, Barenboim, Kremer, Argerich, Kashkashian and Maisky. She has performed at such festivals as: "Bravo Maestro", Gidon Kremer and Friends in Kuhmo, and Martha Argerich and Friends in Bochum. Wanda Wilkomirska has given recitals and performed symphonic concerts in many famous halls, including: Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Royal Festival Hall, the Pyotr Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmonic, with such celebrated conductors as: Kletzki, Boulez, Hindemith, Klemperer, Mehta, Sir John Barbirolli, Sawallisch, Masur and Leinsdorf. She played only once with Leonard Bernstein, artistic differences leading them not to repeat the experience. In 1968, she began regularly recording for the Connoisseur Society record company in New York, for which she made 12 albums. Two of these won awards, namely "Best of the Year" (1972) and the "Grand Prix du Disque" (1974). She has also recorded with Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, Naxos, and Polskie Nagrania.
Personal life Wanda Wilkomirska's marriage to Mieczyslaw Rakowski ended in divorce. He later became Prime Minister of Poland (1988-89) and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Poland, de facto head of state (1989-90). They had 2 sons, one of whom emigrated to Australia.
Honors. Polish State Awards (1952, 1953, 1964); Commander Cross of the Rebirth of Poland Order (1981); Award of the Karol Szymanowski Foundation (1997) for "a special emphasis on Karol Szymanowski's music..."; Commander Cross with a Star (2001); medal for her work for the Polish community in Australia (2005); Honorary Doctorate from the Music Academy in Lodz (2006); 2006 - Honorary Citizen of Kalisz.
This article uses mostly material from the Wikipedia article "Wanda Wlkomirska" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia
Other sources:
Wikipedia (in Polish)
Wilkomirska plays Kreisler
Wilkomirska plays Tartini
Wilkomirska plays Wieniawski
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