Jan Tawroszewicz
Position
- Senior Lecturer (Performance Violin)
-
Student Orchestra Artistic Director
Qualifications
MA (Warsaw Academy of Music)
Room
205, 35 Creyke Road
Contact Details
Phone: +64 3 364 2192, or +64 3 366-7001
Internal Phone: 6192
jan.tawroszewicz@canterbury.ac.nz
Postal address:
School of Music
University of Canterbury,
Private Bag 4800,
Christchurch 4180,
New Zealand
Background
Born in Cracow, Poland, Jan Tawroszewicz was a pupil of Professor Eugenia Uminska from 1952 to 1963 in primary and secondary music school. He then began to study at the Warsaw Academy of Music, under Professor Irena Dubiska, after which, having passed his final examination with High Distinction, he became a member of Professor Tadeusz Wronski’s Master Class. As a student, Jan was active in Chamber Music, appeared as a soloist with such well-known Polish ensembles as the National Philharmonics Chamber Orchestra, under Karol Teutsch, and was concertmaster and soloist with the Polish Chamber Orchestra, under Jerzy Maksymiuk. During this period, he also participated in Master Classes with the Maestros Henryk Szeryng and Jean Fournier.
In 1968, Jan joined the world-famous Warsaw Piano Quintet, led by the famous Wladyslaw Szpilman (who’s war-time experiences were immortalised in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film “The Pianist”). In 1973, Jan became the leader of the Polish String Quartet, which won second prize at the Belgrade Quartet Competition in 1975, as well as two special prizes, one awarded by the Yugoslav Composers Association, and the other by the Daily Politika. In 1976, Jan took third place at Tibor Varga’s violin competition in Sion, Switzerland. In 1977, the Polish Quartet won third prize in the Munich Quartet Competition and in 1978, they won the first prize at the Colmar Competition in France.
Between 1971 and 1982, Jan taught violin and chamber music classes at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and from 1982 to 1984 he was the first Concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1985, he became a New Zealand resident and lecturer of violin at the University of Canterbury. During 1988 Jan was a guest leader of both the New Zealand and Australian Chamber Orchestras and during the same year, Sir Yehudi Menuhin described him as a “remarkable musician, whose inspiration to his younger colleagues and his selfless service to the great art of quartet-playing sets an unequalled example to us all.”
Jan has made gramophone recordings and radio programmes with the Warsaw Piano Quintet and the Polish Quartet for the BBC, Bremen Radio, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Sender Freies Berlin, Sudwetfunk, Westerdeutscher Rundfunk, RIAS Berlin, Radio France, Polish Radio and Swiss Radio. In addition, he has appeared in most of the world’s major music centres, including Russia (the then Soviet Union), Canada, Australia, Germany, France, USA (including at the Library of Congress), Austria, Mexico, Romania, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and Switzerland amongst others. He has participated in such festivals as Aspen, Edinburgh, Baden-Baden, Versailles, Salzburg, and the Warsaw Autumn Festival.
Jan has also lectured at tertiary institutions in California (at the University of Southern California, Irvine), Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. Currently he is Senior Lecturer in Performance Music (violin) at the University of Canterbury and often appears as soloist and chamber musician with groups such as the NZSO, Auckland Philharmonia, Dunedin Symphonia, CSO, as well as duos with Diedre Irons and as violinist with the Canterbury Trio.