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  Lithuanian Ambassador Rytis Paulauskas and Polish Ambassador Remigiusz A. Henzel organize on 5 December 2013 a concert of works by the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Bacevičius and the Polish composer Gražyna Bacewicz interpreted by Prof. Gabrielius Alekna and Bartłomiej Nizioł.   The Bacewicz family is a remarkable cultural phenomenon, symbolic for the history of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Separated by choice and fate, brother and sister, Vytautas Bacevičius and Grażyna Bacewicz, two leading Lithuanian and Polish (respectively) mid-20th century composers are reunited in this program, being one of the first attempts to juxtapose compositions of these two fascinating personalities and celebrate sources of their creativity, rooted in a shared multicultural history of Central Europe. Works by Franz Liszt and Henryk Wieniawski are also featured in the concert presented by pianist Gabrielius Alekna (Lithuania/USA, www.gabrieliusalekna.com) and violinist Bartłomiej Nizioł (Poland/Switzerland, www.bartekniziol.com).

Bacewicz and Bacevičius were not only composers, but also prominent concert virtuosos: Grażyna as violinist, Vytautas as pianist.  In this program their output is represented by works in the genres where their instrumental mastery matched their creative powers: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 4 (1949) by Grażyna Bacewicz, and Sixième mot (1963) for solo piano by Vytautas Bacevičius.  In the perfectly crafted Sonata, controlled romanticism in a neo-classical framework combines with folk-like themes and Grażyna's signature driving rhythms.  Her music studies in Paris and French stylistic influences can be heard in this piece. The Sixième mot is an example of Vytautas' late style, dubbed 'cosmic' by himself.  It is a quasi-improvisatory, rhythmically intricate, harmonically dissonant though delicate abstract musical canvas, characterized by mercurial and forever unpredictable play of motifs. Compositions by Bacevičius and Bacewicz share the program with works by Franz Liszt and Henryk Wieniawski. 

GABRIELIUS ALEKNA

“A highly gifted pianist and musician” 

– Daniel Barenboim
Prize-winner of fourteen international competitions, Gabrielius Alekna is an expert of Bacevičius’s music. He is the first Lithuanian to hold a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School in 2006. His doctoral thesis on the unpublished piano works by Bacevičius was awarded with the Richard F. French prize as the best doctoral thesis of the year at the Juilliard School. Currently based in New York, Alekna regularly returns to Lithuania to give concerts and lectures as a Visiting Associate Professor at the Music Academy of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Gabrielius Alekna was the first Lithuanian to hold a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School.  Winner of the second prize at the 2005 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, Austria, Mr. Alekna has appeared as a soloist in Vienna’s Musikverein with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO Wien) under the baton of Bertrand de Billy.  Mr. Alekna has been a featured soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra and the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in New York, and with the Belarus State Symphony Orchestra in Minsk, while in his native country the pianist appears regularly with major orchestras including the National Symphony, the State Symphony, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and the Christopher Chamber Orchestra.  Daniel Barenboim recently recognized him as “a highly gifted pianist and musician.”  Mr. Alekna has garnered more than a dozen top prizes in competitions on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Hilton Head (United States), Maria Canals (Spain), and Čiurlionis (Lithuania) International Piano Competitions.  His recording of complete Mots by the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Bacevičius was released in early 2012 on the British label ‘Toccata Classics’, and involved collaborations with the two-time Grammy winning producer Judith Sherman and the three-time Grammy-nominated pianist Ursula Oppens. 

In 2013, Gabrielius Alekna performs Witold Lutoslawski’s Piano concerto with the Belarus State Symphony Orchestra in Minsk in commemoration of the composer’s 100-year anniversary; gives solo recitals at New York’s Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery, and at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, as well as in numerous cities and festivals in Lithuania; and records Vytautas Bacevičius’ piano concertos for “Naxos” with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the three-time Grammy nominated conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee.  Gabrielius Alekna’s chamber performances in 2012/2013 include recitals with the cellist Caroline Stinson, Ann Alton, the violinist Bartłomiej Nizioł, and Čiurlionis Quartet.  Gabrielius Alekna has a special interest in education and development of young talent.  Since 2011, he has been teaching as a Visiting Associate Professor at the Music Academy of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, and has co-founded the Birštonas Summer Arts Academy, which debuted in 2013 in Birštonas, Lithuania.

  Gabrielius Alekna’s recordings include piano works by Jeronimas Kačinskas, released by LMIPC in 2010, and a CD of cello and piano music recorded together with Edvardas Armonas and released in 2007 by the Lithuanian National Radio.

BARTŁOMIEJ NIZIOŁ

Biography

Violinist Bartek Niziol was born in Stettin, Poland, in 1974 and studied under the supervision of Jadwiga Kliszewska in Poznan and Pierre Amoyal in Lausanne. He attended Master Class courses led by Zachar Bron, Ruggiero Ricci, Mauricio Fuks and Michael Frischenschlager.

Whilst still studying in Poznań in 1991 he won first prize at the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, as well as first prize at the International Violin Competition in Adelaide. In the following year he also won first prize at the International Violin Competition in Pretoria, Eurovision in Brussels, and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris.

These awards enabled him to debut as soloist with orchestras such as English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NDR Hamburg, New Japan Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. Conductors with whom he has worked as soloist include Yehudi Menuhin, David Zinman, Marek Janowski, Heinrich Schiff and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Concert tours have taken Bartek Niziol to Asia, Africa, South America and throughout Europe. The New York Times has described his playing as having masterful control and a beautifully singing tone.

As a passionate chamber musician he has appeared alongside such Musicians as Pinchas Zuckermann, Elisabeth Leonskaja and Sol Gabetta, and in August 2011 he was invited to perform with Martha Argerich at the famous “Chopin and his Europe” festival in Warsaw.

Bartek Niziol is the leader of the Valentin Berlinsky Quartet (founded in Zürich in 2010)

Bartek Niziolʼs CD recordings of Wieniawski, Bacewicz and the 6 Ysaye Solo Sonatas have won him the prestigious “Fryderyk Prize” at Polandʼs recording industry awards. Since September 2008 Bartek Niziol has been a professor of violin at the Bern Hochschule der Künste. He also sits on the Jury for the International Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznan as well the Instrumental Competition of Migros Culture in Zürich.

He has a special interest in the development of young talent, and to this effect in 2009 he founded the “International Master Class” festival in Piła, Poland, whose artistic director he has been ever since . Bartek Niziol plays a 1727 violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu.