Professor Leszek Sokołowski

Leszek Sokołowski began to study the dou­ble bass at the sec­ondary state music school in Białys­tok with Ryszard Kukiełka. He con­tin­ued his music stud­ies at the Białys­tok Branch of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw (now the Depart­ment of Instru­men­tal and Edu­ca­tional Stud­ies in Białys­tok). He ini­tially stud­ied in Michał Stadnicki’s class and then stud­ied with Pro­fes­sor Andrzej Mysiński under whose super­vi­sion he grad­u­ated in 1985. He con­tin­ued to per­fect his skills at the Salzburg Mozar­teum with Pro­fes­sor Klaus Stoll, first dou­ble bass at the Berlin Phil­har­monic. Leszek Sokołowski is now pro­fes­sor of the dou­ble bass class and deputy dean of the Białys­tok Instru­men­tal and Edu­ca­tional Depart­ment of the FCUM in War­saw. He is also prin­ci­ple dou­ble bass at the Pod­laski region Opera and Phil­har­monic and teaches at the Music School Group in Białystok.

Leszek Sokołowski gives solo per­for­mances and also plays in cham­ber ensem­bles and sym­phony orches­tras. He co-operates with the Cam­er­ata Quar­tet, the Pol­ish Cham­ber Phil­har­monic in Sopot and the Pol­ish Radio Orches­tra in War­saw. He is also founder and leader of the “Sin­fo­nia Aca­d­e­m­ica” cham­ber orchestra.

He has been a very suc­cess­ful teacher. His pupils and stu­dents are lau­re­ates of sev­eral dou­ble bass competitions:

• Robert Zadykow­icz won 3^rd prize at the Pol­ish National Audi­tions in Elbląg;
• Kamil Łomasko received hon­ourable men­tion at the 7^th Adam Bro­nisław Ciechański Dou­ble Bass Com­pe­ti­tion in Poz­nań (2002) and the 1^st Pol­ish National Dou­ble Bass Com­pe­ti­tion in Łódź (2006); he also won 2^nd prize at the Pol­ish National Audi­tions for Cello and Dou­ble Bass Class stu­dents in Elbląg;
• Krzysztof Sokołowski twice won 2^nd prize at com­pe­ti­tions in Elbląg (2002) and Łódź (2004 — 1^st prize was not awarded);
• Fran­ciszek Słomka won 2^nd prize (1st prize was not awarded) at the Pol­ish National Audi­tions for Cello and Dou­ble Bass stu­dents in Łódź (2004).

One of Leszek Sokołowski’s for­mer stu­dents, Bar­tosz Siko­rski, is now a mem­ber of the Wiener Phil­har­moniker. Sev­eral more are either stu­dents or grad­u­ates of Hochschule für Musik and UdK in Berlin. Many of his pupils and stu­dents are mem­bers or for­mer mem­bers of the Euro­pean Union Youth Orches­tra and the Gustaw Mahler Orchestra.

Pro­fes­sor Leszek Sokołowski teaches work­shops, sem­i­nars and mas­ter courses in Vil­nius, Łańcut, Olsz­tyn and Janowiec.