• Willa Lentza

• Show past dates (1)
• 09-06-2024, Sunday, at 7:00 pm - Ticketed event

On Sunday 9th June 2024 in our cycle ICONS OF CULTURE, Katarzyna Dondalska (coloratura soprano) and WŁODEK PAWLIK TRIO (Włodek Pawlik – piano, Damian Kostka – bass, Adam Zagórski – drums) will play compositions by Henry Mancini (1924-1994) as well as Włodek Pawlik’s own music from the albums America, Night in Calisia, and Anhelli.

Well-known tunes by US composer-arranger Henry Mancini, author of soundtracks for nearly 150 films (including the famous Pink Panther series) will undoubtedly be a treat for jazz and film music lovers. The composer won four OSCARS (Academy Awards) and eighteen Oscar nominations, as well as recording more than 90 albums ranging from jazz to pop to classical, eight of which reached Gold status in the United States. He also won 20 GRAMMY Awards and 72 Grammy nominations, as well as one GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD and two EMMY nominations.

PROGRAMME:

Henry Mancini (1924-1994)

‘You and Me’, ‘Crazy World’, ‘The Sweetheart Trio’, ‘Peter Gunn’, ‘Pink Panther’, and ‘Moon River’

Włodek Pawlik (b. 1958)

Pieces from the following albums: America, Night in Calisia, and Anhelli

PERFORMERS

KATARZYNA DONDALSKA (coloratura soprano)

Finalist and prize winner of international singing competitions, including the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD, Cardiff Singer of the World Festival, and the Koloratur-Gesangswettbewerb Sylvia Geszty in Luxembourg. Her major roles include Mozart’s Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) and Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Richard Strauss’s Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Offenbach’s Olympia (The Tales of Hoffmann), Rossini’s Rosina (The Barber of Seville), and the title part in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale, which she has performed in opera houses such as the Grand Opera in Houston, the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, the Korean National Opera in Seoul, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Teatr Wielki – the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, and others.

The artist has appeared in such venues as New York’s Avery Fisher Concert Hall, the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Chicago Music Hall, the John Bassett Theatre in Toronto, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall (at the Kimmel Center), Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, Paramount Theater in Seattle, Orpheum Theater in Vancouver, The Royal Theater in Victoria, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Winspear Centre in Edmonton, Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Fruchthalle Kaiserslautern, Friedrichstadtpalast Berlin, Schloss Benrath Düsseldorf, the Konserthuset in Stockholm, DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Koningin Elisabethzaal in Antwerp, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie Berlin, Munich’s Carl-Orff-Saal in Gasteig, and Berlin’s Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt.

She has appeared as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Liverpool, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Rundfunkorchester in Cologne, the NDR Rundfunksinfonieorchester in Hanover, the Deutsches Filmorchester in Babelsberg, the BBC Orchestra in London, the Bruckner-Symphonieorchester in Linz, Tonhalle in Zürich, and the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, under such conductors as: Vasily Petrenko, Dennis Russell Davies, Roberto Abbado, Carlo Rizzi, Peter Falk, Michael Jurowski, Theodor Guschlbauer, Peter Guth, Klaus Arp, Philip Ellis, Richard Armstrong, Ira Levin, Hans Graf, Howard Griffiths, Marko Letonja, Gabriele Ferro, Grzegorz Nowak, Michał Dworzyński, Marek Pijarowski, Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, Antony Hermus, Victor Pablo Pérez, and Modestas Pitrénas.

WŁODZIMIERZ PAWLIK

World-famous pianist and composer, the only GRAMMY winner in Polish jazz history (for Night in Calisia, named The Best Jazz Large Ensemble Album in Los Angeles, 2014 – tenth anniversary this year). His album have frequently reached Gold status.

Pawlik graduated from Barbara Hesse-Bukowska’s piano class at the Chopin Academy (now University) of Music in Warsaw and the Jazz Department of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. In 2023 the President of Poland awarded him the state title of professor. As a faculty member of Warsaw’s Chopin University of Music, he teaches jazz improvisation. He has recorded 45 original albums. His compositions include a number of film soundtracks, orchestral and vocal, ballet and operatic works. His style is distinguished by a unique ability to combine various musical genres into a new synthetic whole.

The artist’s numerous accolades include the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture, Honorary Citizenships of the City of Kalisz and Garden-City Podkowa Leśna, the Corypheus of Polish Music (as Personality of the Year 2014), the Jazz Angel Award of Lotos Jazz Festiwal, and Jazz Forum magazine’s 2014 Artist of the Year, as well as Fryderyk Award of the Polish music record industry.

Pawlik has collaborated with such eminent musicians as, among others, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Arturo Sandowal, Billy Hart, and Tom Kennedy. 2021 brought him a nomination for the 23rd Eagles – Polish Film Awards (for the soundtrack for Małgorzata Imielska’s All for My Mother). In the same year, he prepared three music composition projects: Baczyński 100 (released on CD in March 2022), Norwid / Pawlik (for Polish public broadcaster TVP), and a commission from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (two song cycles to poems by Zbigniew Herbert and Bolesław Leśmian, premiered by Pawlik himself and the outstanding baritone Robert Gierlach).

The musical Irena (about the life of Irena Sendler), originally to be premiered in New York in 2021 (this plan was abandoned due to the pandemic), was first performed at Poznań’s Music Theatre in 2022, and later enthusiastically received (on 5th May 2024) by an audience of nearly two thousand people at Berlin’s Admiralpalast Theater.

2023 saw the release of Pawlik & Pawlik Duo, recorded with his cellist son Łukasz and presented, among others, during concerts in Germany.