Professor Błażej Sroczyński

Pro­fes­sor Błażej Sroczyński stud­ied the viola with Pro­fes­sor Jan Rakowski at the Acad­emy of Music in Poz­nań, and grad­u­ated in 1963. He started his con­cert career as a stu­dent and is the only vio­list in Poland and one of the very few in the world who plays the viola d’amore. In 1961 he won the third prize at the First Pol­ish Aca­d­e­mic Early Music Com­pe­ti­tion in Łódź.

Pro­fes­sor Sroczyński was the first vio­list at the War­saw Opera (Teatr Wielki) in 1961–73. He then worked as con­cert­mas­ter of the Iran National Radio and Tele­vi­sion Orches­tra in Teheran (1973–1975) and the Malmö Phil­har­monic in Swe­den. He has been a mem­ber of the War­saw Opera String Quar­tet since 1962 and the con­cert­mas­ter of the viola group at the War­saw Opera since 1976. He had also been a mem­ber of the Pol­ish Quar­tet and the Grażyna Bacewicz Quar­tet with which he has given con­certs in Ger­many, France, the for­mer Soviet Union, Mex­ico and Cuba. Together with the Col­legium Musi­cae Antique ensem­ble he has made many record­ings for radio, tele­vi­sion, and record companies.

Pro­fes­sor Sroczyński began his ped­a­gog­i­cal career in 1960, as a teacher at the Musi­cal High School in Poz­nań. From 1966 till 1973 he was employed at the Acad­emy of Music in Poz­nań. Since 1976 he has been employed at the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw. Many of Pro­fes­sor Sroczyński’s stu­dents have won awards at pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tions and have received lead­ing posi­tions in cham­ber and sym­phonic orches­tras in Poland and abroad (e.g., Swe­den, The Nether­lands, Spain and Switzer­land). As the Chair­man of the Depart­ment of Orches­tral Instru­ments, Pro­fes­sor Sroczyński has con­tributed con­sid­er­ably to the artis­tic achieve­ments of the Chopin Acad­emy Sym­phonic Orches­tra. He has pro­vided out­stand­ing Pol­ish and for­eign con­duc­tors for the orches­tra. Owing to the orchestra’s high artis­tic level, a reg­u­lar series of con­certs, known as Wednes­day at the Acad­emy of Music, was intro­duced. In 1999–2005 he was prorec­tor for Stu­dent Affairs.

Pro­fes­sor Sroczyński has received numer­ous hon­ours and awards for his artis­tic and ped­a­gog­i­cal work.