Wanda Wilkomirska

Polish violinist and music educator Born: 11th January 1929 Warsaw, Poland Died: 1st May 2018 Warsaw Poland Sister of composer and conductor Józef Wiłkomirski, and half-sister of cellist Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and pianist Maria Wiłkomirska. Wanda plays 1734 Pietro Guarneri violin. Graduated from the Łódź Academy of Music in 1947 after studying with Irena Dubiska. Wilkomirska continued her education at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, Budapest under the guidance of Ede Zathureczky, graduating in 1950. The musician started her career in Paris and subsequently received an invitation from Henryk Szeryng to study with him. Wanda won the second prize at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (1950) in Leipzig. After preparation studies and recitals with Tadeusz Wroński, Wanda Wiłkomirska played Karol Szymanowski's Concerto No. 1 at the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition (1952) in Poznań, sharing the second prize with Yulian Sitkovetsky; Igor Oistrach won the first prize. In 1955, Wanda Wiłkomirska performed at the inauguration of the renovated Concert Hall Of The Warsaw National Philharmonic, appearing with The National Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Witold Rowicki. She joined the ensemble as a principal soloist and gave many performances around the world. During the sixties and seventies, Wanda had been touring extensively and gave about 100 concerts per year on average. The renowned impresario Sol Hurok organized her tours in the United States and Canada, and Wiłkomirska appeared on stage in over 50 countries since. She gave almost 40 concerts in Australia in 1969, winning a huge acclaim and receiving further proposals from leading Australian orchestras. In 1973, Wilkomirska (accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons (2) became the first violinist to perform a solo recital at the newly built Sydney Opera House. Wanda also played Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto at the inauguration of the Barbican Hall in London in 1976. In 1982, during the martial law period in Poland, Wanda Wiłkomirska decided not to return home at the end of the European tour and accepted a professor's position at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts in Germany. She settled in Australia in 1999 and joined the faculty at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and started teaching at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne in 2001. The artist actively participates in European musical life and routinely travels between continents with concerts, master classes, and competitions. She had been performing in a family Wiłkomirski Trio (with Maria on piano and Kazimierz on cello), as well as with Krystian Zimerman, Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Kim Kashkashian and Mischa Maisky. Wilkomirska premiered works by Tadeusz Baird, Krzysztof Penderecki, Grażyna Bacewicz, Augustyn Bloch, Zbigniew Bargielski, Zbigniew Bujarski, Roman Maciejewski, Włodzimierz Kotoński and other prominent contemporary composers from Poland. She received two Polish State Awards for promoting Polish music to the international audience.