Current position: Piano, Harpsihord and Organ: Chair of Piano: Professor Edward Wolanin
<< back





Professor Edward Wolanin


Professor Edward Wolanin
Professor Edward Wolanin
Edward Wolanin began his piano studies with Urszula Hop when he was 5 years old. He graduated from the secondary music school in Rzeszów (Krystyna Matheis-Domaszowska's class). As the youngest student in the history of the Academy he began to study at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw when he was 15. He studied with Professor Jan Ekier, Professor Bronisława Kawalla and Professor Marchwiński (in his chamber music class). Following his graduation he continued his studies with Professor Jan Ekier as a post-graduate student.
Edward Wolanin has successfully competed in many competitions at home and abroad. When he was still a student he won the F. Chopin competition and the Young Pianists' competition at the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk (1984) and was awarded scholarships. As a member of the Polish team at the 11th Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw he was given the prize for the best Polish pianist who did not make it to stage III. Three weeks after the Warsaw competition he won 2nd prize at the 3rd International Chopin Competition in Palma de Mallorka (1985). Several years later (1989) he won 1st prize at the 3rd European Chopin Competition in Darmstadt and a number of special prizes for the best rendition of studies, nocturnes, polonaises and mazurkas.
Edward Wolanin's concert repertory is very large and covers all historical periods - from Domenico Scarlatti to contemporary composers, especially Romuald Twardowski. The pianist has performed as a soloist with many orchestras including the Polish Radio Orchestra, the national Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, Andrzej Mysiński's Concerto Avenna and the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. He has played with many great conductors including Bogusław Madey, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Tadeusz Strugała, Antoni Wit, Tadeusz Wojciechowski and Marek Pijarowski.


Edward Wolanin also likes to play chamber music very much and has performed with such outstanding performing artists as Jerzy Artysz, Tomasz Strahl, Krzysztof Jakowicz and Kuba Jakowicz. He has played in many European countries and cultural centres including Paris, London, Vienna (Bösendorfer-Saal), Rotterdam, Berlin (Charlottenburg, Schauspielhaus), Prague and Moscow and also in Japan, China, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Mexico and USA. He has taken part in renowned music festivals: Duszniki Zdrój, Słupsk, Antonin, Marianske Lazne (Marienbad), Nohant and also as a chamber orchestra member in Schleswig-Holstein and Montpelier.
Edward Wolanin has made many radio and television recordings and has also recorded many solo and chamber music records. Dux published two of his records with F. Chopin's music in 2000-2001 (Preludes op. 28, Mazurkas op. 30, transcriptions of chamber works and Allegro de concert op. 46 for piano and symphony orchestra. Three records with Romuald Twardowski's music have also been published recently: Concert for piano and orchestra, Little concert for piano and ensemble and Campane I from the "Bell Symphonies" for piano (Acte Préalable). Dux published two records of chamber music in 2006: Józef Wieniawski's Sonata D minor for violin and piano op. 24 with Patrycja Piekutowska (this record was nominated to the Fryderyk 2006 award) and two cycles of songs by Karol Szymanowski, Nursery Rhymes op. 49 with Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna's lyrics and Songs of a fairytale princess to the lyrics of Zofia Szymanowska. Recorded with Anna Mikołajczyk. Johannes Brahms's Sonatas for violin and piano, recorded with Erika Dobosiewicz for Quindecim record company, were published in Mexico in 2007.

The artist in the opinions of the reviewers

Of the many performers who presented themselves at the concert of Professor Kawalla's former students I particularly enjoyed listening to Edward Wolanin, now himself a postdoctoral fellow at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, by the way. When he won first prize at the 3rd Chopin Competition in Darmstadt he was, above all, a brilliant virtuoso; now, in two of the Bach-Busoni Chorals, Wachet auf and Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, he demonstrated great concentration, nobility and refinement and strength of expression proving that he has deepened his interpretation within these last few years.

Józef Kański "Ruch Muzyczny"

Wolanin's style is mature and composed, confident and with great sense of form (...) The (Chopin) Preludes in Edward Wolanin's interpretation are not only a collection of musical miniatures. Heard together, they assemble into a complete story. In the four Mazurkas op. 30, on the other hand, the pianist envisions the cheerful albeit slightly pensive Chopin as he takes in the gentle Mazovian landscape from afar. It is worth adding that the artist has been awarded many foreign prizes for his rendering of the Mazurkas which - as we all know - are the quintessence of Chopin's interpretative problems.

Józef Kański "Ruch Muzyczny"

Acte Préalable publishers have been indefatigably promoting less known Polish music (...) After the works of such composers as Grażyna Bacewicz, August Freyer, Karol Rathaus, Henryk Opieński and Franciszek Lessel, the time has come for Romuald Twardowski (born in 1930) (...) As far as I am concerned, Simfonia di Campane played by Edward Wolanin (Campane I) and Szabolcs Esztényi (Campane I and II) are the best. They are full of colour and changing moods and the pianists render the specific, slightly impressionistic climate of this composition superbly (...).

Magdalena Todynek "Muzyka 21"






Compiled by: The Fryderyk Chopin University of Music