In another collaboration with the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, the Polish Music Center presents one of the brightest young stars of the Polish chamber music scene: Duo Karolina & Iwo. Both virtuosos in their own right, Karolina Mikołajczyk and Iwo Jedynecki bring great energy to the stage, highlighting not only existing repertoire for accordion and violin but also innovative arrangements and commissions for this unusual ensemble.
For this concert, the duo will perform en plein air in the beautiful Children’s Memorial space adjacent to the Museum, presenting a program of arranged works by American and Polish Jewish composers. These include Grzegorz Fitelberg (1879-1953): Berceuse, Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986): Cinq pièces, Roman Ryterband (1914-1979): Le Reveur [The Dreamer] from Trois ballades hébraïques, Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996): Two Songs Without Words, Dalit Warshaw (b. 1974): Lullaby Without Words – Variations on the Yiddish lullaby “Rozhinkes mit Mandlen” and Szymon Laks (1901-1983): Suite polonaise.
Sunday, April 21, 2024 | 4:30 PM
Concert: Karolina and Iwo Duo
The outdoor of Childrens’ Memorial at the Holocaust Museum in LA.
100 The Grove Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
FREE Admission, RSVP at www.holocaustmuseumla.org
Parking available at The Grove and Pan Pacific Park
Artist Biography
The Karolina & Iwo Duo is one of the most vibrant and innovative chamber ensembles of the young generation. Recognized by such musical icons as Maxim Vengerov and Krzysztof Penderecki, the Karolina & Iwo Duo are multiple winners of top prizes at international music competitions across Europe. Their performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Guangzhou Opera House and Warsaw Philharmonic were all sold out engagements, and they have played a total of more than two hundred recitals in France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Poland, Georgia, United States, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, China, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Thailand (including the 2023 PMC Spring Concert).
In 2024 they received Polityka magazine’s “Paszport Polityki,” one of the most significant awards in the Polish arts and media realm. This honor recognized “their versatility and the ability to navigate through diverse musical realms [as well as] virtuosity, unbridled imagination, and ingenuity in selecting and creating new repertoire for the distinctive combination of violin and classical accordion.”
Critics have uniformly praised the Duo’s performances as perfect and mature, yet luminous and filled with youthful vitality. Hailed by Maxim Vengerov as “an ensemble that sounds like one instrument,” the Duo brings completely new qualities and original interpretations to classical masterpieces, thanks to Jedynecki’s violin and accordion transcriptions. Both artists boldly venture into renowned works of chamber music literature giving them new character and delightfully diverse coloring.
The Duo also collaborates with leading Polish composers, such as Marcin Błażewicz (Double Concerto for Violin, Accordion and Symphony Orchestra dedicated to Karolina and Iwo), Piotr Moss (performance of Opolian Concerto for violin, accordion and orchestra in 2021), and Krzysztof Penderecki (Violin Sonata in the Duo’s arrangement officially approved by the composer in 2019). In 2016 the Duo released its debut CD, entitled Premiere, featuring works for violin and accordion written by three generations of composers between 1952 and 2015. As the first ever album with new music by a violin-accordion duo, this CD focused mostly on repertoire never before recorded.
Karolina Mikołajczyk plays a Duke London violin from 1776. lwo Jedynecki plays a Pigini Sirius Millennium accordion. The purchase of both instruments was financed by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.