Jakub Jakowicz, born in Warsaw in 1981, studied violin at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music under his father Krzysztof Jakowicz and legendary Polish violinist, Tadeusz Wroński. In 1998 Krzysztof Penderecki invited him to play at the Penderecki Festival in Krakow, where he performed under Jerzy Maksymiuk. In 2001, Jakowicz made his debut with Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Steinberg, performing Karol Szymanowski’s  First Violin Concerto. He became a member of the Zehetmair Quartett, an ensemble founded by the Austrian violinist and conductor, Thomas Zehetmair, in 2006. The quartet’s album performing compositions by Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith received the Diapason d’Or de l’Anneé Award in 2007. In 2014, the ensemble was honoured with a prestigious Paul Hindemith Award. Jakowicz is a first-prize winner of violin competitions in Lublin, 1993, Wattrelos France, 1995 and Takasaki Japan, 1999. In 2001, he was one of the three winners of the International Rostrum for Young Performers in Bratislava, organised by the European Broadcasting Union and International Music Council UNESCO. He received the Polish-Japanese Foundation award for the most promising young generation violinist in 2002, the “Passport” Award of the “Polityka” magazine in 2003, and the Orpheus Prize at the International Festival of Contemporary Music, in 2007. He has completed a Doctorate and currently serves as a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

Amédée-Ernest Chausson entered the Paris Conservatory in 1879 for a course of study with Jules Massenet and César Franck. He soon cultivated a style that became dramatic and richly chromatic, while also maintaining a certain reserve that was an enduring feature of French taste. As secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique from 1886, Chausson became an integral member of the Parisian musical community. His salon became a regular meeting place for literary and musical luminaries. While visiting Munich and Bayreuth, he witnessed Richard Wagner’s operas Der fliegende Holländer, Tristan und Isolde, and attended the premiere of Parsifal. The works of Wagner greatly expanded his musical environment, which had until then been confined to French operatic and sacred styles. He is best known for his chamber music, specifically the Concerto for piano, violin, and string quartet, Op. 21, and the Piano Quartet, Op. 30 in addition to his imaginative orchestral works like the Symphony in B flat major, Op. 20 and the Poème for violin and orchestra, Op. 25.

Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator