Anna Kowalska

studied lute with Toyohiko Satoh, Nigel North and Joachim Held at the Royal Concervatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. Having been educated as a classical guitarist as well, Anna has covered a vast repertoire from the Renaissance to late Baroque including 19th century repertoire for historical guitar. Her solo programs include mostly works of French and German baroque lute composers such Gaultier, Du Fault, Gallot, Weichenberger, Weiss. Anna pays great attention to solo works of J.S. Bach, including her own transcriptions for baroque lute of sonatas and partitas for solo violin and an unaccompanied cello. As a continuo player she recently worked with Emma Kirkby, Olga Pasiecznik, Wladyslaw Klosiewicz (harpsicord, Poland), Marek Toporowski (harpsichord, “Concerto Polacco”, Poland),. Anna is currently concentrating on the lute and baroque guitar as both a soloist and continuo player. Searching for genuine sounding of the of the works of J.S. Bach and S.L. Weiss, Anna recently combines her interpretation with the use of unique technology, playing on purely gut strung instrument as was used in the time of the Baroque.

 

Anton Birula

has studied the lute with Prof. Toyohiko Satoh at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and with Prof. Konrad Junghaenel at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne. With his concentration on the extant solo literature for the Baroque lute Anton Birula has performed numerous lute recitals featuring music of J.S.Bach, S.L. Weiss and French lutenists. His special interests were transcriptions of J.S. Bach suites for solo cello and violin sonatas and partitas for the Baroque lute. As a theorbo player Anton Birula has performed a vast amount of musical literature with numerous ensembles, specializing in vocal music by 17th century Italian and English composers and the viola da gamba music of Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray.
Anton has worked with such important soloists as Wladyslaw Klosiewicz (harpsichord), Nigel Kennedy (violin), Emma Kirkby (soprano), Marek Toporowski (harpsichord), Olga Pasiecznik (soprano).
During his long engagement at the Warsaw Chamber Opera Anton has participated in the performances of all works of Claudio Monteverdi as well as operas by Pieri, Caccini, Landi, Scarlatti.
Anton teaches lute at the Frederich Chopin Music Collage (Warsaw) and at the Felix Nowowiejski Music Academy (Bydgoszcz).

 

As an ensemble

Anna and Anton have come together to attract attention to the long neglected duo repertoire for the Baroque lute duo. United by a mutual fascination they wanted to help shed light upon music which was written during the final twilight hours of the lute's bright history. They were the first to perform and record the recently discovered duet compositions of Francois du Fault and transcriptions of the Marin Marais' duet viola da gamba compositions for two baroque lutes. This resulted in a program «Baroque Lute Duets" which was released on CD in 2002. Later they started to work on duo repertoire for other combinations of historical plucked instruments, especially baroque guitar and theorbo. Showcasing the contrasting styles of different cultures, the program "Musical voyage across 17-th century Europe" moves us from solemn music of great Italian lute and theorbo players (Allessandro Piccinini and Girolamo Kapsberger) to the temperamental style of the first Spanish guitar virtuosi (Gaspar Sanz and Santiago de Murcia) and melancholic mood of French baroque masters (Robert de Visee and Francois Couperin).
Vast project dedicated to works of Johann Sebastian Bach covers solo works for lute including lute versions of solo violin and cello compositions as well as transcriptions of other instrumental works of the master for two 24 string Baroque lutes.
Recent activity of the duo concerns also 19th century music for romantic guitar. Using copies of 6 string guitars of the 19th century maker Rene Lete, strung with gut strings, the musicians perform works of J.K.Mertz, F. Sor, F. Chopin, Napoleon Coste. The high point of this program is the transcription of the famous organ work by Cesar Frank, Prelude Fugue & Variation, op.18

Anna and Anton successfully presented these programs across Europe performing at different festivals in Austria, Belgium, Chech Republic, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Russian Federation and Switzerland.