prof. dr hab. Oriana Masternak – HEAD
Oriana Masternak – violinist, chamber musician, artistic curator, Head of the Violin and Viola Department at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, and Professor of Arts (a title she received at the age of 39, as one of the youngest in Poland).
She is a prize-winning interpreter and researcher of Polish music, both forgotten and contemporary. Oriana regularly performs worldwide – as a soloist and, above all, as a chamber musician – across Asia, the Americas, and most European countries, presenting a versatile repertoire ranging from masterpieces of all eras to world premieres of works dedicated to her. As critics note, her playing is characterized by “a beautiful tone, extraordinary richness of color, flawless intonation, and natural phrasing.”
To date, she has performed over 700 concerts, including appearances at festivals such as the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (USA), Festival Pablo Casals (Prades), Mozartiade (Augsburg), Kalkalpen Festival (Grossraming), Pacific Music Festival (Sapporo), 21st Frühling Wiener Festival (Konzerthaus, Vienna), Warsaw Autumn, and Sacrum Profanum. In January 2012, she performed at the renowned Musikverein in Vienna, in November 2014 at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and in December 2015 at Carnegie Hall in New York. In the autumn of 2019, she was invited to give 13 recitals of Polish music in China’s most prestigious concert halls (with pianist Justyna Danczowska). As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras under the baton of Maciej Tworek, Marek Moś, Ernst Kovacic, Lilianna Krych, and Maria Bazou, among others. Oriana has given nearly 40 world premieres of contemporary works by Polish and international composers. Since 2014, she has been a co-founder of the Messages Quartet, one of Poland’s leading string quartets.
She has won numerous awards at national and international competitions in Bulgaria, New York, Vienna, the Netherlands, Italy, Kraków, and Łódź. She has received scholarships from organizations including the “Young Poland” Program, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the European Chamber Music Academy, the Louise Willson Scholarship (Yale University, USA), the Pacific Music Festival (Japan), the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Thomastik-Infeld, the Małopolska Scholarship Foundation “Sapere Auso,” and the Kraków Creative Scholarship. She has been nominated several times for the Fryderyk Awards. In 2022, together with the Messages Quartet, she received the main prize at the international competition Muzyczne Orły (“Music Eagles”), and in 2023 the quartet was nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award in the Personality of the Year category. In 2023 she was awarded the honorary distinction Meritorious for Polish Culture, and in 2024 once again became a laureate of the Muzyczne Orły.
She studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków (graduating with distinction in Prof. Roman Reiner’s class), the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, the European Chamber Music Academy, the Yale School of Music (USA), and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Her artistic mentors include Johannes Meissl, Katalin Sebestyen, Małgorzata Skorupa, Magdalena Szczepanowska, and the Tokyo Quartet.
She has frequently recorded for Polish Radio (including the series “Miejscówka z Dwójką”) and television. She is regularly featured in the media, giving interviews for Polish Radio Channel 2, Radio Kraków, Radio Kraków Kultura, TV Kraków, TV Wrocław, and other press outlets. Her discography includes over 15 albums. In 2014, her debut CD with works for violin and piano by Lucien Durosoir (with pianist Sławomir Cierpik) was released by the Academy of Music in Kraków. In 2017, she released the album Philipp Scharwenka. Music for Violin and Piano (Acte Préalable, with pianist Sławomir Cierpik). She has also recorded for DUX (including the complete string quartets of Szymon Laks with the Messages Quartet, and the album Messages), SOLITON, and the Chopin University of Music label. In 2021, DUX released two albums: Parallels (with pianist Justyna Danczowska) and the Fryderyk-nominated Bacewicz/Tansman – Piano Quintets (with Julia Kociuban and Messages Quartet). In 2023, DUX released her recording of Polish clarinet quintets (with clarinetist Piotr Lato and Messages Quartet).
As a curator of musical life, Oriana has organized nearly 30 projects (concerts, academic-artistic sessions, and cultural initiatives). She is the founder and organizer of the cycles Musical Interventions and Young Pre-Spring, the conference Faces of the Violin, the festival A due, and numerous other events. She regularly publishes in the journal Ruch Muzyczny. Her research focuses on little-known Polish music and the Kraków violin tradition. In 2024, she received the prestigious grant from the National Science Centre (NCN) and began her project The Kraków Violin School – Genesis, Idiom, Development Perspectives, which explores almost 140 years of Kraków’s violin performance tradition. The project includes source studies, recordings, interviews, and documentation of contemporary violinists’ interpretations, making unique knowledge of the Kraków School of Violin accessible to a wide audience.
Oriana Masternak teaches violin at the Kraków Academy of Music. She has also served as a juror at the Macroregional Chamber Music Auditions for Secondary Music Schools in Gdańsk, the International Music Interpretation Competition in Krasiczyn, the International Music Competition OPUS, the Intercollegiate Violin Competition named after J. Stanienda in Warsaw, the International Violin Competition Janko Muzykant in Sochaczew, and the National Competition for Young Instrumentalists in Jasło. She has given masterclasses in Poland and abroad (including Spain, Georgia, and Brazil). She is a faculty member at the Małopolska Academy of Talents in Łącko, the International Music Courses in Łańcut, the Kraków Summer Academy of Music, and the Jak Wieniawski Courses in Kazimierz.
As both an artist and pedagogue, Oriana Masternak is guided by the conviction that music must be rooted in contemporary life while remaining faithful to its historical contexts. She sees art as a language – expressive, emotional, yet thoughtful and deliberate. As she emphasizes:
“Performance is responsibility. Our task is to present every piece of music in a way that captivates the listener. I am someone who likes to know. I study treatises and music literature because the more I know, the freer I feel – and that freedom allows me to convey music in a conscious way, full of expression and faithful to the composer’s true intent.”
She performs on a 1788 violin by Sebastian Lang.