dr hab. Krzysztof Firlus
Krzysztof FIRLUS is pursuing a two-fold career, as a viola da gamba and double bass player, performing on both instruments as a soloist as well as in chamber ensembles and orchestras. He studied the viola da gamba with Professor Vittorio Ghielmi at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and with Mark Caudle at the Academy of Music in Katowice. He has been associated with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. He has also worked with the Silesian Quartet, Le Poème Harmonique, BachAkademie Stuttgart, Capella Cracoviensis, Leila Schayegh, Aline Zylberajch, Marek Toporowski, Martyna Pastuszka, or Marcin Świątkiewicz.
He has held a Scholarship for Creators of Culture of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, a grant from the “Młoda Polska” (Young Poland) scholarship programme, and has won prizes at international and national competitions (Andernach, Brno, Wrocław, Żory, Poznań, Łódź, Dąbrowa Górnicza). His extensive discography includes, among others, the first viola da gamba solo CD Gamba Sonatas, excellently reviewed by international critics, which he recorded with his wife Anna Firlus and which was nominated for the “Fryderyk 2019” Award, C.F. Abel – Sonatas from the Maltzan Collection, conteining world premiere recordings of C.F. Abel sonatas discovered in Poznań University Library (nominated for the International Classical Music Award and „Fryderyk 2020” Award), Music of French Masters – Music of the Warsaw Castle with the {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna (solo part in the concerto for viola da gamba Le Phénix by Michel Corrette), Telemann – Solos & Trios with the Extempore Ensemble, Tansman – from Trio to Octet (with the Silesian Quartet), Progressive Baroque with the Nikola Kołodziejczyk Orchestra (the “Fryderyk 2016” Award), Music in Dresden in the Times of Augustus II the Strong (with Martyna Pastuszka and Marcin Świątkiewicz) and Lithuanian birbyne and Seventeenth Century Music of Poland and Lithuania (with Marek Toporowski and Ensemble Reversio).
Currently, Krzysztof Firlus runs a viola da gamba class at the Academy of Music in Katowice and a double bass class at the Academy of Music in Kraków.