The ARTISTS of the festival

Pianist and composer, completed piano studies with distinction (1979) and composition studies also with distinction (1988) at Wrocław Academy of Music. In the years 1972-80, as a composer, he was a pupil and private grant holder of Witold Lutosławski, and in the years 1979-80, as a pianist, he was twice a grant holder of the Chopin Society in Warsaw. He has won prizes in composition competitions in Poland and abroad. From 1991 to 1994 he was chair of the Wrocław Section of the Polish Composers’ Union. He has composed piano music, works for chamber and symphonic forces, film music and also several oratorio- cantata works, including Saint Hedwig of Silesia and Saint John of God. Since 1991 he has been artistic director of the ‘Porozumienie’ Silesian International Music Festival, and since 2003 of the ‘EuroSilesia’ International Music Festival, in the development of which the world famous conductor Kurt Masur is personally involved. Among the orchestras to have performed in this festival are the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (1996), the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (2000) and the Orchestre National de France (2003) – all under the baton of maestro Kurt Masur. Since 2004 Gąsieniec has been organiser of Masur’s International Conducting Masterclass in Wrocław. Since 2006 he has been chairman of the Wrocław Circle of the Chopin Society (from 2001 vice chairman). He is also artistic director of the ‘Forum Chopinowskie’ festival organised since 1998 in Wrocław and was a member of the Organising Committee for the building of a Chopin monument in Wrocław, which was ceremoniously unveiled in September 2004. In 2000 he recorded a solo disc with works by Chopin and Liszt, and in 2001 a disc (together with Konstanty Andrzej Kulka) of sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms. The year 2003 saw the recording of a CD featuring his own compositions: the cantatas Święta Jadwiga Śląska and Święty Jan Boży, performed by Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus with the leading Polish tenor Wiesław Ochman. In 1990 he received a merit award from the Minister of Culture for his contribution to Polish culture as composer and pianist, and on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his musical work (in 2000) the Silver Cross of Merit from the President of Poland. He is currently associated permanently with the Chamber Music Department of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław.