Lech Bałaban

Lech Bałaban (associate professor) began learning the violin at the age of five with his father, Henryk Bałaban, who supervised his musical development until the second year of his academic education. He then studied with Paweł Radziński and Jadwiga Kaliszewska, graduating from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 1988. He went on to study the viola at the same academy, where he obtained his degree in 1994. He further developed his skills at masterclasses with E. Feltz, Z. Bron, O. Kagan, V. Pikayzen, M. Frischenschlager and R. Ricci. He won a special prize at 4th National Festival for Young Violinists in Lublin (1980) and the 1st Prize at the 5th National Jan Rakowski Viola Competition in Poznań (1993). Since 1988 he has been a member of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio conducted by Agnieszka Duczmal. As a soloist he has given concerts in Poland and abroad, in Denmark, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, France and the former Soviet Union. With the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra he has recorded viola concertos by J. Ch. Bach, G. F. Handel, K. Penderecki, M. Stachowski, as well as The Violet Rhapsody by P. Wróbel and the Sinfonia Concertante by W. A. Mozart (with Jarosław Żołnierczyk). He has performed at the Bravo Maestro Festival together with Wanda Wiłkomirska, Ewa Pobłocka, Vadim Brodsky, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Kuba Jakowicz, Waldemar Malicki, Tomasz Strahl, and others. He is a member of the Wieniawski Quartet, with whom he has recorded Krzysztof Meyer’s complete string quartets for Naxos. He has also given concerts with Piotr Pławner. He teaches classes (since 2012 as an associate professor) at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz and the Poznan School of Talents, where several of his students have won some prestigious music competitions.