Lech Bałaban
Lech Bałaban. Phot. Katarzyna Babka.
Lech Bałaban began learning the
violin at the age of five with his father, Henryk Bałaban, who supervised his
musical development through the second year of his academic education.
Later, he studied with Prof. P. Radziński and Prof. J. Kaliszewska to graduate
from the latter’s class at Poznań Academy of Music in 1988. He went on to study
the viola at the same academy, and graduated in 1994. He developed his skills
at master classes with Professors E. Feltz, Z. Bron, O. Kagan, W. Pikajzen, M. Frischenschlager and R. Ricci. Winner of
special prize at 4th National Festival of Young Violinists in
Lublin (1980) and 1st prize at 5th National Jan Rakowski Viola
Competition in Poznań (1993), since 1988 he has been a member of Polish
Radio’s Amadeus Chamber Orchestra
conducted by Agnieszka Duczmal, and leader of its viola section. As soloist, he
has given concerts in many Polish cities, as well as in Denmark, Slovakia,
Germany, Austria, France and the former Soviet Union. With Amadeus Chamber Orchestra he has recorded viola concertos by J. Ch.
Bach, G. F. Handel, K. Penderecki, M. Stachowski, The Violet Rhapsody by P. Wróbel, as well as the Sinfonia
Concertante by W. A. Mozart (with Jarosław Żołnierczyk). At the prestigious Bravo Maestro Festival, he has performed
with Wanda Wiłkomirska, Ewa Pobłocka, Vadim Brodsky, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Kuba Jakowicz, Waldemar Malicki, Tomasz Strahl, and others. He is a
member of the Wieniawski Quartet, with
which he has recorded Krzysztof Meyer’s complete string quartets for Naxos. He
has also given concerts with Piotr Pławner. Professor at Bydgoszcz Music Academy, he is also in charge of viola class
at the Academy of Music in Poznań. As a teacher at Poznań’s School for Talents,
he has succeeded in educating a number of musical competition winners. On 14
Feb. 2011, he was conferred post-doctoral degree in musical art.
