Soloist - Barbara Dziewięcka

Barbara Dziewięcka was born in Kraków in 1988. She began to play the violin at the age of 6, studying in her home city with Renata Sperka at the Karłowicz State Music School and then with Antoni Cofalik at the Chopin Music High School.

Barbara has performed as a soloist with the Polish youth orchestra "Ostinato" in Poland, Germany and France and has made several recordings for Polish Radio. She has participated in masterclasses all over Europe with Adam Korniszewski, Piotr Plawner, Jan Stanienda, Tomasz Tomaszewski, and with the Belcea Quartet in London. She has performed as a soloist at the Philharmonic Halls in Kraków, Łodź, Zielona Góra and Opole in Poland, and at the Stuttgart Music Academy Hall in Germany.

Barbara has won various prizes in youth violin competitions in Poland, including 1st prize in the 1998 Violin and Cello Classes Review in Limanowa, 2nd prize and a special award in the 2002 St. Hajzer Bach Competition in Zielona Góra, 5th Prize in the 2003, Telemann National Violin Competition in Poznań and, in 2004, she was awarded 3rd Prize in the Irena Dubiska Violin Competition in Łódź.

As a member of Capella Cracoviensis and other chamber groups, she has taken part in many concerts and charity recordings, working with such wonderful musicians as Ida Haendel, Yuri Zhyslin, Sergei Krylov and Natalia Gutman.

In 2006, Barbara won a undergraduate scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she is currently studying with Krzysztof Śmietana. She is supported by the City of London Corporation and the Music Students Hostel Trust.