Laureate of the 3rd Intercollegiate Viola Competition

The National Intercollegiate Viola Competition is an annual event addressed to students of Polish art universities. In two-stage auditions, young soloists judged by a jury of teachers from music academies in Poland compete with each other.

As explained by Stefan Kamasa, the greatest Polish viola player of the 20th century, his natural aspiration as a musician was to move from an orchestra member to a chamber musician and from a chamber musician to a soloist. This is also how you can summarize the history of the viola – today a concert instrument, for which, however, there have been many pieces written by composers since the times of Telemann. The warm and deep sound of the viola gives these compositions melodiousness and charm unattainable for other instruments. It is no wonder then that it is an instrument constantly increasing its popularity.

The winner of last year's competition is Damian Kułakowski. In 2016, he graduated with honours from undergraduate studies at the Academy of Music in Krakow in the violin class of prof. Magdalena Szczepanowska. He started playing the viola in 2011. Together with Piotr Hausenplas and Magdalena Szczepanowska, he co-creates the string trio Canone All’unisono, which was performed a Polish premiere of Paweł Klecki's String Trio (2016). He mastered his instrumental and chamber skill, among others with Kaja Danczowska, Krzysztof Chorzelski and Dmitry Sitkowiecki.