Bartłomiej Wezner
piano
Bartłomiej Wezner, born in Nysa (Poland) in 1981, is reputed to be among the most versatile pianists of his generation, feeling equally at his ease in chamber music, piano accompaniment or solo performance.
He graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz in 2006, having studied under Prof. Ewa Pobłocka. In the years 2002 – 2004 he was also a student in Prof. Jerzy Sulikowski’s piano class. He simultaneously studied harpsichord with Prof. Urszula Bartkiewicz.
While on a scholarship awarded to him by the Piano Texas Festival and Academy Foundation in Fort Worth (2006, USA) Bartłomiej was invited to participate in a masterclass course led by Prof. Piotr Paleczny, Prof. Andrea Bonatta and Dr. Támás Ungár, as well as in a chamber music course taught by the late János Starker in collaboration with Ensō String Quartet. He was a participant of the Paderewski Piano Academy and the 2010 masterclass course led by Prof. Andrzej Jasiński and Prof. Ilja Scheps with the Toruń Symphony Orchestra, held in the Ostromecko palace (Poland).
In 2011 he completed his post-degree inter-faculty art song study programme at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where a year later he also finished his chamber piano music intern programme with Prof. Maja Nosowska and Prof. Jan Stanienda. In 2012 he won an International Dartington Summer School scholarship (UK) to join a course with Stephen Kovacevich. In 2013 he completed his third-cycle studies and was awarded the degree of doctor and, in 2019 habilitation. The following year he began work as professor at the Bydgoszcz Academy of Music.
With the violinist Joanna Kreft, as Herbert Duo Bartłomiej won the 3rd Prize in the 16th International Chamber Music Competition ’Premio Trio di Trieste’ (Italy) in 2015. The same year he was also among the prize-winners of the Academie de Musique de Lausanne (Switzerland) and the winner of the Special Prize in the 1st International Beethoven Chamber Music Competition in Lusławice (Poland). With his BMF Piano Trio he won the St Martin’s Chamber Music Competition in London (2011) and the 1st Prize in the 19th International Chamber Music Competition in Thessaloniki (2010, Greece), and he also participated in the ARD Music Competition in Munich (2013, Germany). Since 2008 Bartłomiej has been collaborating with Vadim Brodski (the Brodski Jazz Quartet), and since 2011 with the violinist Maria Machowska. In 2013 he started Herbert Piano Trio together with Joanna Kreft (violin) and Dominik Płociński (cello), with whom, in 2015, he received a grant from the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn (Germany) to participate in a seminar and workshop taught by Prof. Clive Brown in cooperation with Trio Jean Paul.
Accompanying the mezzo-soprano Agata Schmidt, Bartłomiej was among the finalists of the 50th International Vocal Competition in the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the lied duo category (2014), and he was the winner of the 3rd Prize in the 17th International Kiejstut Bacewicz Chamber Music Competition in Łódź (2010, Poland). He was awarded the best pianist prizes in Polish vocal music competitions in Warsaw (2007), Katowice (2008), Łódź (2009), Sopot (2010) and Częstochowa (2013). He worked as an accompanying pianist for the 2008 masterclass course in vocal music given by the renowned Polish soprano Teresa Żylis-Gara in the Radziejowice palace, the 2012 Young Vocalists of Lesser Poland workshop taught by Prof. Helena Łazarska and Zofia Kilanowicz in Nowy Sącz (Poland), and the 2014 masterclass led by Thomas Hampson in the Gorzów Wielkopolski Philharmonic Hall (Poland). He was also appointed official accompanist of the 14th, 15th and 16th International Ada Sari Vocal Art Competition in Nowy Sącz (2011, 2013, 2015, 2019), the 9th International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition in Warsaw (2016), International Karol Szymanowski Competition in Katowice (2018) and 4th International Karol Lipiński Violin Competition in Toruń (2019).
As a soloist, Bartłomiej was presented with the Special Award at the 6th International Ignacy Jan Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz (2004) and the Distinction Award at the 15th International Leoš Janáček Piano Competition in Brno (2008, the Czech Republic). As a harpsichordist, he frequently performs with the Capella Bydgostiensis chamber orchestra and the Illo Tempore early music ensemble.
Bartłomiej is busy giving concerts at home and abroad. He has performed in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Greece, Germany, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, UK, Italy and USA. He has also been working with the above-mentioned Capella Bydgostiensis, the Toruń Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Opole and Bydgoszcz Philharmonic Orchestras.
He was awarded special grants by the Head of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province Council in 2011 and 2012, as well as the Marshall of the Kuyavyan-Pomeranian region (2011, 2012, 2017, 2020) and received support through the ’Young Poland'(2012) and ‘Artistic Scholarship'(2021) – Scholarship Programme for outstanding young musicians funded by the Minister of Culture. He has recorded for such companies as CdAccord, Dux, Fonoteus and Acte Préalable. In September 2013 he saw the CdAccord release of his BMF Piano Trio’s album Lanscape of Memories, featuring compositions by Andrzej Panufnik and his daughter Roxanna, Zygmunt Mycielski, Zbigniew Bargielski and Hanna Kulenty.