Current position: Vocal: Chair of Vocal Studies: Professor Wlodzimierz Zalewski
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| Prof. Wlodzimierz Zalewski
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Professor Wlodzimierz Zalewski
Born 1 March 1951 in Lodz. He studied at the Department of Singing and Acting at the State College of Music in Lodz in Professor Zdzislaw Krzywicki's class. He graduated with honours in 1976.
Wlodzimierz Zalewski was engaged as a soloist of the Great Opera Theatre in Lodz in 1975. He also began to co-operate with the Great Opera Theatre in Warsaw.
He began to teach at the State College of Lodz in 1979.
In 1982-86 he was engaged as a soloist at the Opera Theatre in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. In 1986 he once again began to work at the Great Opera Theatre in Lodz.
In 1994 he was engaged as a soloist at the Great National Opera Theatre in Warsaw and also began to work at the Academy of Music in Warsaw.
He got his Ist. Level degree in the vocal arts from the Academy of Music in Lodz in 1992 and his IInd. Level degree from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in 2000.
Wlodzimierz Zalewski is now Assistant Professor at the academy of Music in Warsaw and the Academy of Music in Lodz. Since 2002 he has been Dean of the Vocal and Acting Department of the Academy of Music in Lodz and Head of the Chair of Singing at the AMFC in Warsaw.
Artistic achievements
Since he began his career in 1975, Wlodzimierz Zalewski has sung more than 50 major bass parts in opera theatres in Poland and abroad.
The most important ones are:
- Gurnemanz in Parsifal Richard Wagner's
- Dutchman in Flying Dutchman Richard Wagner's
- Mefistofeles in Mefistofeles Arigo Boito's
- Zacharias in Nabucco Giuseppe Verdi's
- Attila in Attila Giuseppe Verdi's
- Philip, Gand Inquisitor, A Friar in Don Carlos Giuseppe Verdi's
- Count Walter in Luisa Miller Giuseppe Verdi's;
- Baron Ochs in Der Rosekavalier Richard Strauss's
- Pizzaro in Fidelio Ludwik van Beethoven's and Eleonor
- Boris Godunov in Boris Godunov Modest Musorgski's
- Don Giovanni and Commendatore in Don Giovanni Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's
- Bluebeard in Duke Bluebeard's Castle Bela Bartók's
- van Bett in Zar und Zimmermann Albert Lortzing's
- Zbigniew and Skoluba in The Haunted Manor ("Straszny dwór") Stanislaw Moniuszko's
- Stolnik in Halka Stanislaw Moniuszko's
- Creon and Shepherd in Oedipus Rex Igor Stravinsky's
First performances of the following operas:
- Ein Einbeiniger in Sandor Balassy's Drausen vor der Tür (according to Borchert) - Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen;
- title role in Karl Kogler's Kohlhaas (according to Kleist) - Landestheater Linz (film and record recordings);
- Romuald Twardowski's Maria Stuart and Lord Jim - Great Opera Theatre, Lodz
- Bordure in Krzysztof Penderecki's Ubu Rex - Great Opera Theatre, Lodz
Professor Zalewski has sung these parts in nearly every philharmonic in Poland and also at many music festivals, both in Poland (e.g., "Warsaw Autumn") and abroad (e.g., Hollandfestival Amsterdam, Wiesbadene Bach Wochen, Berliner Konzerte in der Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin Philharmonic).
He has worked with many conductors including A. Wicherek, B. Madey, Z. Latoszewski, H. Czyz, J. Katlewicz, J. Semkow, J. Kaspszyk, S. Byczkow, M. Mayrhofer, A. Wit and many stage managers including A. Zulawski, M. Grzesinski, W. Dekker, J. Bluwal, P. Flieder, P. L. Pizzi, P. L. Pier'Alli and G. Deflo.
Wlodzimierz Zalewski has also made many TV and radio studio recordings of arias and songs in Poland, Germany and Austria. He has taken part in many concerts and festivals transmitted by and recorded for radio and television.
The most important recordings:
- Count Walter in Giuseppe Verdi's Luisa Miller - Baltic Opera in Gdansk, Polish first performance;
- the title role in Karl Kogler's Kohlhaas (according to Kleist) - Landstheater, Linz (film and record):
- Modest Musorgski's Boris Godunov - WOSPR, Katowice for EMI;
- Leonora (the original version of Ludvig van Beethoven's Fidelio - Cracow Philharmonic and Berlin Pizzaro.
Teaching
Professor Zalewski has been teaching since 1979 with a four year interlude for his stay in Germany in 1982-86.
In his didactic work he puts great emphasis on vocal technique and its adjustment to the individual potential of the singer and to widely understood musical sensitivity. He gave a lecture on "The mechanics of breathing in singing" at the Symposium of Warsaw singing teachers organised by the Chair of Vocal Studies, Music Academy in Warsaw in 1997.
By 2001 Professor Zalewski had supervised one Level I course in the Academy of Music in Lodz and 10 Master's Theses. He has reviewed just as many theses in both Warsaw and Lodz.
Awards:
Wlodzimierz Zalewski was awarded the Certificate of Merit of the Polish Stage Artists' Association for "outstanding achievement in the vocal and acting arts in opera theatres and for his entire artistic output" in 2000 and the Certificate of Merit of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for "outstanding professional achievement" in 2001.
Compiled by: The Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music