Joanna Zathey-Wójcińska - NOSPR

Pianist and chamber musician. She graduated with distinction from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, where she studied piano with Professor Grzegorz Kurzyński. In 2005, she completed postgraduate studies in chamber music with Professor Dora Schwarzberg at the Accademia di Musica in Pinerolo, Italy. In June 2015, she received her doctorate in musical arts.

Since 1999, she has been professionally associated with the Academy of Music in Poznań and the Jadwiga Kaliszewska Secondary Music School in Poznań. From the outset of her career, she worked with viola, cello, clarinet and percussion classes, although the violin repertoire ultimately became the principal focus of her work. For 13 years, she worked closely with Professor Jadwiga Kaliszewska, both at the secondary music school and at the Academy of Music in Poznań. She currently collaborates with the violin class of Professor M. Baranowski and Dr J. Nadrzycki. Together with pupils and students, she takes part in numerous violin competitions, where she has received distinctions for the outstanding artistry of her piano part.

She was an official collaborative pianist at the 13th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poznań (2006) and also appeared at the most recent edition of the competition in 2022, accompanying Shihan Wang. She has also served as an official collaborative pianist at the 1st Karol Szymanowski In Memoriam International Violin Competition in Toruń (2007), the Stanisław Serwaczyński Polish National Competition for Young Violinists in Lublin (since the 2014 edition), the Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Lublin (since the 2015 edition), and the ‘Jak Wieniawski’ Polish National Violin Competition in Lublin. Each year, she works with the Georg Philipp Telemann International Violin Competition in Poznań, currently in its 23rd edition. In 2023, she served as an official collaborative pianist at a special edition of the 19th Aram Khachaturian International Violin Competition in Beijing, and in 2024 at the subsequent edition of the Khachaturian International Youth Competition, also in Beijing.

Since 2023, she has been an official collaborative pianist at the Wanda Wiłkomirska International Polish Music Competition in Częstochowa. She also collaborates with the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music, where, in addition to accompanying violin classes during the Winter Music Academies, she has appeared in the Presentations series, partnering young artists in violin recitals.

In 2022 and 2023, she was invited to the Mønsommer International Chamber Music Festival in Denmark, where she combined the roles of pianist, chamber musician and tutor, working with violinists, violists, cellists, flautists and clarinettists, while also performing in duos and chamber ensembles during the festival.

She collaborates with Zofia Anna Olesik, with whom she has appeared in numerous concerts and competitions, initially when Olesik was a pupil at the Jadwiga Kaliszewska Secondary Music School in Poznań and now as a student at the Academy of Music in Poznań. In 2026, they took part together in the prestigious ‘Violin Masterclass with Anne-Sophie Mutter’ in Oxford, UK. She has also accompanied Olesik at violin competitions, including the CEA Polish National Competition in Kielce (Grand Prix), the Aram Khachaturian Competition in Yerevan, the Michał Spisak Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza and the Zdzisław Jahnke Competition in Poznań.

She gives lectures and workshops for piano teachers specialising in chamber music, focusing on performance practice and the role of the pianist in chamber music.

Since 2011, she has formed a duo with violinist Jarosław Nadrzycki, with whom she made her debut at the Ohrid Summer Festival in Macedonia. In 2015, the duo inaugurated the ‘Recitals of the Masters’ concert series at NOSPR’s new home in Katowice. In 2019, they gave a series of concerts at the Polish-Russian ‘Youth Academy of Art’ Festival in Moscow and were invited by the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music to perform at the Emanacje Festival. In 2022, at the invitation of the Polish Embassy in Turkey, they gave a recital at the Ephesus Museum as part of the prestigious 35th International Izmir Festival. In May 2026, they appeared in the ‘Through Poland with the Classics’ concert series organised by the National Institute of Music and Dance (NIMiT). Their collaboration has resulted in an album of Brahms’ sonatas for violin and piano, released by Orphée Classics in November 2018. A further album, featuring works for violin and piano by Robert Schumann, is due to be released shortly.

Joanna Zathey’s discography also includes an album of piano trios by Joseph Haydn, Friedrich Kuhlau and Carl Maria von Weber, recorded with Swiss flautist Anja Kreutzer and Italian cellist MarYn PraYssoli and released by Da Vinci Classics in 2023.