Jarosław Thiel is a graduate of the Poznań School of Talents. He studied cello at both the Academy of Music in Poznań and the Academy of Music in Łódź, Poland. Since 1997, he has been focused on historical performance. He completed his post-graduate studies in Baroque cello at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, having worked with Phoebe Carrai and Markus a Möllenbeck. Thiel has participated in master classes run by Christine Kypranides at the Dresdner Akademie für Alte Musik and has collaborated with the most important Polish ensembles specialising in early music. Thiel has been the first cellist with the Dresdner Barockorchester and a member of the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen led by Laurence Cummings since 2000. He also works with leading German ensembles, such as Cantus Cölln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Lautten Compagney. He regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician in connection with festivals of early music world-wide. He currently teaches Baroque cello at the Academy of Music in Poznań and the Summer Academy of Early Music in Lidzbark Warmiński, Poland. In 2006 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra.
Zbigniew Pilch graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków under Zbigniew Szlezer and specialised in Baroque violin studies with Zygmunt Kaczmarski. In 1997, he was a finalist of the Locatelli Competition in Amsterdam. Mr Pilch performs as a soloist, chamber musician and ensemble leader, playing the violin, viola and viola d’amore. He had the great honour of playing the concerti by Vivaldi and Locatelli on a Baroque violin and has recently performed caprices by Lipiński, Wieniawski and Paganini on an 1876 instrument by Louis Bernardel. He has been a member of Sinfonietta Cracovia and has led courses at the Summer Early Music Academy in Żywiec. He currently serves as a professor of violin and Baroque viola at the Academy of Music in Wrocław and leads the Harmonologia ensemble.
Karol Lipiński was born in Radzyń and began playing the violin at the age of five. In 1799 he became the concertmaster of Adam Count Starzeński's palace orchestra in Lviv, which was led by his father. He took the position of concertmaster of the opera theatre orchestra in 1809, and three years later was appointed the orchestra's kapellmaster. After meeting Ludwig Spohr in Vienna, in 1814, Lipinski gave up his work in Lviv to devote himself solely to the pursuit of a career as a violin virtuoso. For the next several years, he travelled throughout Europe. In 1827, he was appointed first violinist of the Court of the Polish Kingdom and in 1831, of the Tsar's Court. Lipiński settled permanently in Dresden in 1839, for the next twenty years he served as concertmaster for the King of Saxony, Frederick-August, also playing with Franz Liszt. His outstanding contribution to the royal court was rewarded with the Knightly Order of Prince Albert. In 1861, he moved to his estate in Urlov near Lviv and founded a music school for talented peasant children. His students include Jozsef Joachim and Henryk Wieniawski.
Feliks Janiewicz was born in Vilnius, he was violinist, conductor, composer and organizer of musical life. In his youth, he attained a high level of violin playing as a member of the Royal Chapel in Warsaw. After receiving a royal grant in 1784, he travelled throughout Europe studying composition. In 1792, at the invitation J.P. Salomon he went to the UK. That season he performed as the principal violin soloist at the Solomon subscription concerts in the Hanover Square Room. In addition to regular concert appearances, he took part in many benefit concerts for leading musicians and undertook work as a concert violinist and orchestra leader. During that period, he performed in Bath and Ireland, as well as in Manchester, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. In October of 1799 he married Eliza Breeze and settled in Liverpool, where he founded a shop with music and musical instruments, it was then that he also undertook some minor publishing activities. However, in 1816, W.D.G. Weiss, took over the business and Feliks Janiewicz returned to a more active role in musical life. He developed a concert career and led the Liverpool orchestra subscription concerts as well as organizing his own concert series. Additionally, he was one of the thirty founders of the Philharmonic Society in London. In 1831, Janiewicz retired from the concert platform. He had two daughters, one a pianist and singer, and the other a harpist.
Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator
