Professor Tomasz Strahl

Tomasz Strahl grad­u­ated from the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in 1989 where he stud­ied the cello under Pro­fes­sor Kaz­imierz Micha­lik. As a holder of an Aus­trian Gov­ern­ment schol­ar­ship he com­pleted one-year post-graduate stud­ies at the Hochschule für Musik und darstel­lende in Vienna under Pro­fes­sor T. Kühn. He per­fected his cham­ber music skills under Krzysztof Jakow­icz, the out­stand­ing vio­lin­ist with whom he has been per­form­ing for many years.

Tomasz Strahl has won many national and inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions in Poz­nań and War­saw and also won first prize at the 5^th Inter­na­tional N. Music Com­pe­ti­tion in San Sebas­t­ian, Spain, in 1991. The Polish-Japanese JESC Foun­da­tion awarded him a schol­ar­ship in 1994.

He has played with many con­duc­tors includ­ing M. Błaszczyk, Ł. Borow­icz, T. Bugaj, H. Czyż, A. Ducz­mal, Ph. Entremont, J. M. Florên­cio, C. Grabowski, J. Kosek, J. Maksymiuk, W. Mich­niewski, M. Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, K. Pen­derecki, M. Pijarowski, P. Przy­tocki, Z. Rychert, J. Sal­warowski, T. Stru­gała, J. Svo­boda, T. Woj­ciechowski and S. A. Wróblewski. For many years now he has been a very active per­former, play­ing with such orches­tras as: Pol­ish Radio National Sym­phony Orches­tra, the National Phil­har­monic Orches­tra, the Pol­ish Cham­ber Orches­tra, the Pol­ish Radio Cham­ber Orches­tra “Amadeus”, the Pol­ish Radio Orches­tra, Sin­foni­etta Cra­covia, Con­certo Avenna and nearly all other phil­har­monic orches­tras in Poland. He also co-operates with dis­tin­guished soloists, the Sile­sian Quar­tet and the Wilanów Quartet.

Tomasz Strahl’s most impor­tant con­certs include his per­for­mances at Tel Aviv Art Cen­tre, L’Auditoria Barcelona, Bruck­n­er­saal Linz, the National Phil­har­monic and the Moniuszko Audi­to­rium at Teatr Wielki — National Opera War­saw, Schaus­piel­haus Berlin, St. John’s Smith Square Lon­don and Top­pan Hall Tokio. He has com­pleted many tours in Japan, Canada and Spain (with the Sile­sian Phil­har­monic). His ren­der­ing of Witold Lutosławski’s Cello Con­certo in the composer’s pres­ence in 1993, con­ducted by M. Błaszczyk, was an impor­tant event as was his par­tic­i­pa­tion with Krzysztof Jabłoński in “Fortepi­anis­simo”, a spec­ta­cle staged by Teatr Wielki — National Opera in War­saw. Tomasz Strahl gave the Pol­ish first per­for­mance of Piotr Mossa’s 2nd Cello Con­certo with the Pol­ish Radio National Sym­phony Orches­tra at the “Pre­miere” Fes­ti­val in 2005.

Tomasz Strahl is a fre­quent guest at such music fes­ti­vals as: “Bravo Mae­stro”, the Byd­goszcz Music Fes­ti­val, Fes­ti­vals in Gaudix (Spain) and Busko Zdrój, the F. Chopin Fes­ti­vals in Duszniki Zdrój and Antonin, the Organ Fes­ti­val in Kamień Pomorski, the Pol­ish Piano Fes­ti­val in Słupsk, “Music in Ancient Cra­cow”, “War­saw Autumn” and “War­saw Music Encoun­ters”. In 2006 he took part in the pres­ti­gious Inter­na­tional Cello Fes­ti­val in Cara­cas (Venezuela).

Tomasz Strahl and the pianist Krzysztof Jabłoński founded the Chopin Duo.

Tomasz Strahl has made many archival record­ings for Pol­ish Radio (e.g., con­cer­tos by Mak­lakiewicz and Sto­jowski with the Pol­ish Radio National Orches­tra con­ducted by Sławek A. Wróblewski and Łukasz Borow­icz) and Pol­ish Tele­vi­sion. He has also recorded for CBC Radio in Canada. His discog­ra­phy con­tains many records pub­lished by such record com­pa­nies as: Acte Préal­able, CD Accord, Gema Stereo, Pavane Records, Pol-Music, Pony Canyon and Sonny Clas­sics. His records have twice been nom­i­nated to the “Fry­deryk” Award which the artist won in 2003.

Tomasz Strahl leads many mas­ter courses in Poland, Fin­land, Hol­land, Japan (Kyoto Uni­ver­sity of Arts) and Ger­many and he also teaches a cello class at the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music in War­saw and the G. and K. Bacewicz Acad­emy of Music in Łódź. In 2005 the artist gave a series of lec­tures and sev­eral con­certs dur­ing the pres­ti­gious “Wiener­som­mer­akademie ’05″.

Tomasz Strahl recived his tit­u­lar pro­fes­sor­ship from the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Poland in 2001 and was awarded a Gold Cross of Merit in 2002.

In 2008 he was elected deputy dean of the Depart­ment of Instru­men­tal Stud­ies at the FCUM in War­saw for term 2008–2012.