Jakub Jakowicz studied violin at the Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin University of Music under the supervision of his father, Krzystof Jakowicz, and was also the last student of Professor Tadeusz Wronski, one of the legendary Polish violinists. Making his stage debut at age 11 in 1998, Krzysztof Penderecki invited him to play at the Penderecki Festival in Kraków. Jakub has played with all leading Polish orchestras and made solo appearances with renowned orchestras in Europe and South America. Jakub is a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.

In the span of recent seasons, the imaginative and versatile Finnish virtuoso Paavali Jumppanen has established himself as a dynamic musician of seemingly unlimited capability who has already cut a wide swath internationally as a solo recitalist, orchestral collaborator, recording artist and artistic director. Paavali Jumppanen has performed extensively in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and Australia. Recent highlights include Adelaide Festival’s 2023 Chamber Landscapes program, as soloist with West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kuhmo and Naantali Music Festivals and multi-arts festival, Väyläfestival.

A virtuoso duo, the Polish violin guru Jakub Jakowicz and the maverick Finnish pianist Paavali Jumppanen offer a program of delightful European classics. Bookending the program are two Viennese masterworks, Schubert’s Fantasy and Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. Schubert, the younger of the two Viennese geniuses, composed the Fantasy as a homage to the recently deceased Beethoven. The work’s devilish demands on both players reflect those of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. Schubert’s work is titled ‘a fantasy’ and, since it stretches the idea of a chamber sonata to the extreme; perhaps Beethoven’s work should have been called ‘a concerto’. At the heart of the program, the duo gives a rendering of the Sonata No. 5 by Grazyna Bacewicz, a celebrated Polish violinist-composer of the 20^th century. Bacewicz lead a successful career as a violinist and concert master of the Polish Radio Orchestra, but composition, which she studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, came to define her position as one of the most significant musical personalities of her country. Bacewicz’s music is beaming with original character, her great sense of melody and understanding of the ways of the violin in particular amounting to an intriguing musical feat.