Piotr Janowski

Piotr Janowski with his wife Joanna Maklakiewicz in wedding

Piotr Janowski (5 February 1951 – 6 December 2008) was a Polish violinist, first Polish winner of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition.

Janowski was born in Grudziądz, Poland. At the age of 16 in 1967, he won the V International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań, Poland. He graduated with distinction from The Higher State School of Music in Warsaw where he completed the five-year course in one academic year in the class of Irena Dubiska (1969–1970).

He continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Ivan Galamian and later at the Juilliard School of Music in New York as pupil of Galamian and Zino Francescatti. In 1974, invited by Henryk Szeryng and Zino Francescatti, Janowski studied at the Summer Masterclass in Montreux (Switzerland). Between 1975 and 1977 he was a private scholar of Jascha Heifetz at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

He was a citizen of Poland and the United States of America, he also was an honorary citizen of Arkansas, USA and the city of Cognac, France.

He died in London, United Kingdom, and is buried at Powązki cemetery in Warsaw.

Artistic activity

As a soloist Janowski played with the most important orchestras in the United States and Europe, including New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He cooperated with Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Slatkin, Eugene Ormandy, Erich Leinsdorf, Stanisław Wisłocki, Andrzej Markowski, Bogusław Madey, Karol Stryja, William Smith and Walter Hendel.

He was accompanied by Mieczysław Horszowski, Arthur Balsam, Peter Serkin, Franco Agostini, Wolfgang Plagge, Jerzy Lefeld, Maciej Paderewski, Jerzy Marchwiński, Zofia Vogtman, Paul Berkowitz, Cynthia Raim, Roman Markowicz, Steven Meyer, Golda Tetz and also his wife, Joanna Maklakiewicz.

Since 1976 Janowski was a member of the New Arts Trio. He took part in numerous music festivals (Marlboro, VT, Chautauqua, NY, Dimitrios and Warsaw Autumn). He was lecturer at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, Eastman School of Music in Rochester, state New York and Barratt-Due Institutt in Oslo, Norway. He led masterclasses in Conservatorio di Bologna, Thessaloniki Conservatory, Ohio State University, Columbus, Evenstone, The Oberlin College and Northwestern University.

The violin he played was a 1722 Guarneri del Gesu.

Prizes

World first performances

Recordings

Sources

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