Jakub Jakowicz
studied violin at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music under the supervision of his father Krzysztof Jakowicz. He was also the last student of prof. Tadeusz Wroński – one of the Polish legendary violinists.
The artist made his stage debut at the age of 11. He has played with all leading Polish orchestras. In 1998 Krzysztof Penderecki invited him to play at the Penderecki Festival in Cracow, where he performed Capriccio per violino e orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk. In 2001 Jakub Jakowicz made his debut with Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Steinberg, performing Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Since then, he has made solo appearances with several renowned orchestras such as Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale in Florence, Czech Philharmonic in Prague, Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Drezden Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Orquesta Nacional in Madrid, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and Concerto Köln. He has worked with many conductors including Pinchas Steinberg, Jerzy Semkow, Antoni Wit, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Yan Pascal Tortellier, Eiji Oue, Marek Pijarowski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Agnieszka Duczmal, Kirill Karabits, Michail Jurovski, Marc Minkowski and Stefan Solyom. In 2009 and 2011 he was invited by Antoni Wit to be a guest-soloist during the Warsaw Philharmonic’s concert tours in Great Britain.
As a chamber musician Jakub Jakowicz performs on a regular basis with his father. Since 2000 he has been playing with pianist Bartosz Bednarczyk, with whom he recorded 4 albums: Subito (Polskie Radio), Beethoven Violin Sonatas (Subito Records), Lutosławski’s Partita (CD Accord) and Schubert’s chamber music (Polskie Radio). He has also worked with many other musicians – Heinz Holliger, Paul Gulda, Jan Krzysztof Broja, Michel Lethiec, Anna Maria Staśkiewicz, Ruth Kilius, Katarzyna Budnik-Gałązka, Ryszard Groblewski, Avri Levitan, Ursula Smith, Daniel Möller-Schott, Andrzej Bauer, Rafał Kwiatkowski, Marcin Zdunik, Karol Marianowski and Zvi Plesser.
He has collaborated with two strings quartets: from 2008 to 2014 he was the primarius of the Lutosławski Quartet and since 2006 he has been a member of the Zehetmair Quartet – an ensemble founded by the Austrian violinist and conductor Thomas Zehetmair. Featuring one concert programme a year, the ensemble plays most works from memory. The quartet’s album covering the compositions of Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith (ECM label) received the Diapason d’Or de l’Anneé Award in 2007. Jakowicz has played with the ensemble at numerous venues including Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, Santory Hall in Tokyo, Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Zankel Hall and Y Hall in New York, as well as several music festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Salzburg, Lucerne, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and many others. In 2014 the ensemble was honoured with a prestigious Paul Hindemith Award of the City of Hanau.
Jakub Jakowicz is a first-prize winner of violin competitions in Lublin (1993), Wattrelos in France (1995) and Takasaki in Japan (1999). In 2001 he was one of the 3 winners of the International Rostrum for Young Performers in Bratislava, organized by the European Broadcasting Union and International Music Council UNESCO. He received the Polish-Japanese Foundation award for the most promising young generation violinist (2002), the “Passport” Award of the “Polityka” magazine (2003) and the Orpheus Prize at the International Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw Autumn” (2007). In 2018 the Witold Lutosławski Society awarded him the Witold Lutosławski Centennial Medal for outstanding contributions in the dissemination of the composer’s music.
The artist obtained his PhD and works a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He plays an instrument by Gand Frères (Paris 1859), courtesy of the Fondation Jerzy Semkow.
photo: Maciej Mulawa