Song Recital

About the event

Songs by Mieczysław Weinberg with Tomasz Raff (bass) and Mischa Kozłowski (piano). Introductory talk by the musicologist Verena Mogl. A cooperation with the German Poland Institute.

Tomasz Raff is a Warsaw-born bass who completed his training at the Berlin University of the Arts with KS Prof. Peter Maus and at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He is a guest soloist of the Warsaw National Opera and the Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw as well as artistic director and fundraiser of the “o.to.ja Foundation”. As a freelance singer and music producer he has organised and artistically directed several premieres and other artistic projects. Among the most important are the premieres and first recordings of M. Weinberg's songs and the premieres of the chamber opera “Zum Himmel” and the psalm cycle, both by K. Brochocka.

He began his singing career while still a student, making his debut in 2007 as Uberto in “La serva padrona” in Warsaw. Since then he has embodied several major operatic roles such as Daland, Mefistofele, Sarastro, Colline, Gremin, Osmin and Zaccaria at the National Opera and the Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw, the operas of Kraków and Wrocław, Halle Opera, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Ballhaus Ost and “Hebbel am Ufer” Berlin. In concert and oratorio he regularly sings both Bach Passions, the Christmas Oratorio, Handel's “Messiah”, Mozart's Requiem and masses, and Arvo Pärt's “Passio”. He is a member of Ensemble Artists e. V.

Mischa Kozłowski is one of the most interesting pianists of the young Polish generation, a soloist and chamber musician, assistant at the Chamber Music Institute of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and president of the foundation “Partnership in Music”. The young artist has already had the opportunity to demonstrate his gifts with the greatest success in concert halls in Europe, China and Japan. From 1999 he studied with Prof. Katarzyna (Ekaterina) Popowa-Zydroń and from 2008 at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the piano class of Prof. Paleczny and the chamber music class of Prof. Padrewski, Prof. Marchwiński and Prof. Jankowska-Borzykowska (master's diploma with highest distinction in 2013). From 2014 he studied at the Bern University of the Arts, where in 2017 he completed the soloist diploma with highest distinction under Prof. Herbut and subsequently the “CAS – Chamber Music Advanced” programme together with the Affetto Piano Trio. He has been invited to major festivals such as “Kissinger Sommer” and “KlavierOlymp” in Bad Kissingen, the “European Weeks” in Passau and the “Swiss Chamber Music Festival” in Adelboden.

Biographies