“Kupiec plays with a rare mixture of spirit, a faultless technique, a complete understanding of musical texture and an ability to shape music with transparency and an impressive richness of colours. Her playing is brilliant but never obtrusive, full of atmosphere and subtly virtuosic.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Whilst maintaining a busy profile on the concert platforms of Germany, Ewa Kupiec is now a regular performer with Europe's finest orchestras, and has performed in recent years with the Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic amongst others. In 2002 she made her American debut with the Milwaukee Symphony, swiftly followed by further engagements in the USA, and in 2008 she will make her debut with the Minnesota Orchestra. In Japan, Kupiec made her recital debut in Tokyo in 2002 and she returned in 2007 to perform with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Nagoya Philharmonic. Kupiec's first visit to Australia in 2005 was hailed as a great success and has endorsed her musical presence on the international concert scene: her performances of Chopin's First Concerto with the Melbourne Symphony were chosen by the orchestra to be included on their first live recording, produced on their own label. Kupiec now returns to Australia on a regular basis, with tours coming up in 2008 and 2009.
In her solo recital performances, Kupiec achieves an especially intimate level of communication with her audiences, a talent that is repeatedly applauded by critics. Her belief in the contact that can be achieved through the art of live performance is inherent in her approach to music-making and is the driving force behind her programme building. Her "Literature and Music" programme, devised this year for the Rheingau Festival where she is a regular guest, made up of works by Prokofiev, Szymanowski, Meyers and Liszt, received exceptional critical acclaim both for its performance and content. She also performed at London's prestigious International Piano Series at the Southbank Centre with a highly demanding programme featuring Stravinsky's Petrushka . Forthcoming recital plans include performances across Germany and in Melbourne, Prague and Istanbul.
Ewa Kupiec is recognised as one of Europe's most dedicated interpreters of contemporary music. Her performance in 2004 of Schnittke's First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra was the first performance of this work since 1964. This successful collaboration immediately led to a further invitation to record all of Schnittke's works for piano and orchestra (including the concerto for four hands) which will be released in September 2007. Her endeavour to bring attention to lesser known works of Polish composers has resulted in recordings of Paderewski, Szymanowski, Szpilman and Lutoslawski, as well as the complete works for solo piano and for violin and piano duo of Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969). Kupiec has further endorsed her commitment to contemporary music with her recording of "Conception", a CD of solo works composed for her, which she co-produced herself.
The renowned Polish maestro Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, an admirer of Kupiec's pianism, has initiated and supported an exceptionally fruitful musical collaboration between the two, and as such they have performed all over the world and recorded together. Other conductors with whom she has worked include Metzmacher, Alsop, Altrichter, Blomstedt, Janowski, Lintu, Oramo, Sinaisky, Varga and Wolff. Highlights over the current and coming seasons include debuts with Orchestre de Paris, MDR Leipzig with Maerkl, Het Residentie with Neemi Järvi, Prague Symphony, Brucknerorchestra (Linz), BBC Scottish, Iceland Symphony, Royal Danish Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony and a return to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with Sinaisky.
Ewa Kupiec studied in Katowice, the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. She presently resides in Munich, Germany and Umbria, Italy.
Ewa Kupiec is represented by Intermusica.
March 2008 / 615 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.