Employees

prof. dr hab.

Artur Kasperek

bassoon

Artur Kasperek was born in Lublin, where he graduated from the Karol Lipiński Music High School, studying bassoon under Grażyna Woć-Kowalik. He completed his higher education at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (now the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), in the class of Prof. Bogumił Gadawski. He further refined his skills under the guidance of Prof. Klaus Thunemann in Hanover. In 1998, he won the Third Prize at the International Bassoon Competition in Potsdam.

He is a co-founder and the principal bassoonist of the Varsovia Quartet, as well as a long-standing member of chamber ensembles including the Varsovia Nova Quintet and the Gruppo di Tempera Sextet, with whom he has performed at prestigious festivals across Europe and Asia. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared with many leading orchestras in Poland and abroad.

From 1989 to 1994, he was a soloist with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic; since 1992, a soloist at the Grand Theatre – National Opera; from 1994 to 2017, a soloist with the Polish Radio Orchestra; and during the 1998/1999 season, he served as principal bassoonist of the Swiss Sinfonia Helvetica. Since 2000, he has been a soloist with the Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra.

Between 1999 and 2009, he headed the wind instruments section at the Grand Theatre – National Opera. In 1999, Krystian Zimerman invited him to collaborate as principal bassoonist with the Polish Festival Orchestra, with which he undertook an international tour and recorded Chopin’s Piano Concertos for Deutsche Grammophon—a recording that received multiple awards and is recognized as one of the finest interpretations of Chopin’s works.

In 2017, together with musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra and distinguished Polish instrumentalists, he founded the Amadeus Ensemble, specializing in chamber music for wind instruments. As a soloist, he has performed in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Russia, and Belarus, playing works by composers including W.A. Mozart, C.M. von Weber, J.N. Hummel, A. Vivaldi, R. Strauss, A. Panufnik, H. Villa-Lobos, J. Françaix, and P. Hindemith, accompanied by orchestras such as Sinfonietta Cracovia, Polish Radio Orchestra, Concerto Avenna, Capella Śląska, Pomeranian Philharmonic, Podlasie Philharmonic, Lublin Philharmonic, Podkarpacka Philharmonic, and the National Philharmonic of Belarus.

Artur Kasperek collaborates with numerous chamber groups and orchestras, including NFM Leopoldinum, Concerto Avenna, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Varsovia Nova, Ensemble de Narol, Sinfonia Varsovia, New Art Ensemble, Amadeus Ensemble, and Gruppo di Tempera.

Throughout his career, he has performed under the batons of eminent conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Claudio Abbado, Christoph Eschenbach, Patrick Fournillier, Yehudi Menuhin, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jerzy Semkow, Jan Krenz, Antoni Wit, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jacek Kaspszyk, José Cura, Shlomo Mintz, and Grzegorz Nowak. He has also accompanied renowned soloists including Krystian Zimerman, Piotr Anderszewski, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Maxim Vengerov, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Piotr Beczała, Tomasz Konieczny, Mariusz Kwiecień, and Artur Ruciński.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has recorded extensively for Polish Radio and Polish Television and has contributed to the music production of over 100 films, TV series, and theatrical performances, including the popular series Ojciec Mateusz.

He maintains an active pedagogical career as a professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where since 2019 he has headed the Department of Wind Instruments. From 2017 to 2019, he held a similar position at the University’s branch in Białystok. In 2020, he was awarded the title of Associate Professor at the university, and in 2022, he received the title of Full Professor.

His students have won prestigious international competitions and hold principal bassoonist positions in leading Polish orchestras such as the National Philharmonic, the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Theatre – National Opera, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Polish Radio Orchestra, the Polish Royal Opera, the Poznań Philharmonic, the Pomeranian Philharmonic, the Podlasie Philharmonic, the Warmia-Masuria Philharmonic, the Wrocław Philharmonic, the Gorzów Philharmonic, the Wrocław Opera, Cavatina Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jelenia Góra Philharmonic, the Lublin Opera, and Sinfonia Iuventus.

He regularly conducts masterclasses, seminars, and workshops both in Poland and abroad and has been invited as a lecturer to institutions in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and China. In 2024, he led a series of masterclasses at the leading music academies in China, including the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

He serves on juries of national and international bassoon competitions. For his outstanding artistic and pedagogical achievements, he has been awarded the Medal "Meritorious for Polish Culture" and has received multiple honors from the Center for Artistic Education.