Emilia Baranowska

Polish Contemporary Pianist and Composer

International concert Cellist. Emilia Baranowska received her first piano lessons at the age of 4 from her mother. At the age of 9, Emilia switched to the cello and became a student of the great Bulgarian cellist Zdravko Yordanov, who was a student of Rostropovich. Her encounter with the cellist Eleftherios Papastavro (a pupil of Pablo Casals) and the art patrons Ernst and Margrit Hermann at a masterclass in Yugoslavia changed the course of her life. They encouraged 18-year-old Emilia to continue her music studies with Papastavro at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique in Paris. Emilia's international career began when she moved to Paris. In 1969, she made her debut at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in Germany. In 1975, Emilia won the special prize for the best interpretation of Spanish music at the Granada International Music Competition. In 1977, Deutsche Grammophon released her recording Cello and Voice with Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff. In 1979, she was invited to perform Bach's Suite No. 5 in a music program on French television. Her performance caught the attention of Leonard Rose, who invited her to perfect her artistry at the Juilliard School in New York. When she returned to Paris in 1981, a new phase of life began as she met various composers who wrote and dedicated works to her. Gheorghe Zamfir composed Three Pieces for Cello and Pan Flute, which premiered at the Basilique de Saint-Maximin in France. He then wrote a concerto for cello, panpipes, and symphony orchestra. The Argentinian composer Sergio Calligaris dedicated his Suite op. 28 for solo cello to her in 1991, which premiered at the Mozart Foundation in Lausanne. In 1993, Djansug Kakhidze invited Emilia to the brand new Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra for the first series of concerts together with Vadim Repin and Eliso Virsaladze. Baranowska performs as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Radio Orchestra Südwestrundfunk, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bulgarian Radio Orchestra, the Sofia Soloists, the Symphonic Orchestra Plovdiv, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic, the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Versailles, Les Solistes Francais, the Lake Constance Symphony Orchestra, and the German-French Youth Orchestra, performing concertos by Haydn, Schumann, Elgar, Lalo, Brahms, and others. She has also performed in the USA, Mexico, Canada, Morocco, Israel, Lebanon, and China. Parallel to her concert career, Emilia also has a rich activity as a teacher. As a cello professor, she taught at the Conservatoires de Musique de la Rochelle, de Region de Lille, and Gabriel Faure de la Ville de Paris.