Kosciuszko Foundation in Washington DC - Past Events

Piano Concert - Promoting Young Polish Pianists

Saturday, February 8, 2020, at 5:00pm

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James Bennett has been playing piano for 10 years, and currently is a student of Dr. Marjorie Lee.  He attends James Madison HS in Vienna, where he plays piano and violin in the Chamber Orchestra. He has also accompanied his fellow students in competitions, and he loves to improvise.

James won the M. Gotlieb Competition in 2013 and the Young Musicians Inspiring Challenge Competition in 2016. He was also 1st-place winner in the MSMTA Solo Competitions (2014, 2016) and WMTA Hartman Competition ( 2017).  James received 1st place in the NVMTA ( 2016) Piano Ensemble Festival, and was a finalist in the 2015 International Young Artists Piano competition and Novik Concerto Competition. In 2018 he won the NVMTA Achievement Competition, and his fellow orchestra members presented him with the Gold Music Award for best musician.

The young pianist has played not only in competitions, but also at nursing homes, coffee houses, and the Polish Embassy in Washington DC and at the Steinway Gallery in Reno, NV. He gave his first concert at the Kosciuszko Foundation at age12, followed by a recital at the Polish-American Arts Association, also in Washington DC.   In 2017 gave a solo recital in Drezdenko (Poland), and he has participated in the International Music Course in Opole (Poland), where he studied under Professor Andrzej Jasinski and Dr. Ewa Sokolowska.

 

Born in Warsaw, James has lived in Poland, Russia and Ukraine as well as the United States.

Mikolaj Wozniak was born in 2003 in Zielona Gora (Poland). He is currently a student of Olga Lazarska at the Wladyslaw Zelenski Music School in Krakow.

Mikolaj has won numerous national and international competitions: the Leopold Godowski International Competition in Warsaw, 1st place and special prize in the Halina and Ludwik Stefanski Chopin Piano Tourney in Krakow (2016 and 2017), 2nd place in the 8th International Piano Competition in Broumov, the Czech Republic (as well as being awarded the top prize by a student jury), 1st place in the 15th All-Polish Piano Competition in Legnica, and first prize in the European Piano Competition in Zielona Gora.  In chamber music competitions, he won 1st place in the 3rd Polish-German Chamber Ensemble Competition in Zary (Poland), 1st place in the 36th Chamber Music Competition in Wroclaw, a special prize in the 6th International Chamber Music Competition (in Memoriam of Viktor Ullman) in Bydgoszcz, and 1st place in the 6th International Chamber Music Competition (W trzech odslonach) organized by the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.

Mikolaj has participated in music workshops at the Penderecki International Center of Music in Luslawice, die Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Leipzig, die Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hamburg, the Grazyna and Kiestut Bacewicz Music School in Lodz, and the Dr. Rahn Foundation for Culture and Enlightenment.  There he has worked with renowned pedagogues such as Helgeheide Schmidt, Cezary Sanecki, Andrzej Jasinski, Alicja Paleta-Bugaj, Charles Owen, Janusz Olejniczak, Hubert Rutkowski, Ewa Bukojemska, Hubert Rutkowski, and Janusz Olejniczak.

Notwithstanding his young age, Mikolaj has already performed in renowned concert halls such as the Cairo Opera Concert Hall, the Koncerthalle Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Frankfurt-am-Oder, the Penderecki Concert Hall in Luslawice, the Gorzow Philharmonic, the Wroclaw Filharmonic, the MAN Auditorium in Minsk, Belarus, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.  He has received an invitation from maestro El-Saedi to perform the Grieg Concerto in e minor with the Cairo Philharmonic in 2020.

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