Continuo Connect — Concert // Katarzyna Kowalik: An exploration of 17th century French music

The final recital in the series presents Katarzyna Kowalik and her programme 'French Collection'

Programme

JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU (1683-1764)
Premier Livre Pièces de Clavecin

PIERRE-CLAUDE FOUQUET (1694/5-1745)
Le Carillon de Cithere

ANTOINE FORQUERAY (1671-1745)
Le Carillon de Passy

ELISABETH JACQUET DE LA GUERRE (1665-1729)
Harpsichord suite in A minor

FRANCOIS COUPERIN (1668-1733)
Les Barricades Mystérieuses
Le Réveil-Matin

JOSEPH-NICOLAS-PANCRACE ROYER (1705-1755)
L'Aimable
Le Vertigo

Katarzyna Kowalik

Katarzyna Kowalik is a Polish/British, London-based harpsichordist performing actively as a soloist and with many period ensembles in the UK and across Europe.

After graduating from Frederic Chopin University in Warsaw (Piano Masters with Alicja Paleta - Bugaj, Piano Doctoral Studies with Maria Szraiber, Harpsichord Masters with Władysław Kłosiewicz) she completed Master Degree in Historical Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Carole Cerasi, James Johnstone and Nicholas Parle, obtaining The City of London Corporation Award and Guildhall School Trust Award. She was also awarded the Guildhall Artist Fellowship twice.

Katarzyna mastered her skills in the Piccola Accademia in Montisi with Christophe Rousset and Skip Sempé, as well as with Ilton Wjuniski at the Académie Musicale de Villecroze. She also participated in the Academy of Ancient Music AAMplify side-by-side workshops. Katarzyna has performed in many concert venues in London such as The Barbican Centre, Cadogan Hall, The Cobbe Collection of Early Keyboards at Hatchlands, The Foundling Museum, Handel & Hendrix, Horniman Museum, National Gallery, Milton Court, The Museum of London, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St George’s Hanover Square, St John’s Smith Square, The Royal Albert Hall, The Wallace Collection.

She has worked with many groups and orchestras such as The Amadè Players, The Brandenburg Baroque Soloists, Dunedin Consort, Fiori Musicali, Hera, Literary Music, Little Baroque Company, Mahogany Opera, The Mozartists, Music for Awhile, La Serenissima, Opera Lyrica.

In 2015 Katarzyna was a participant in the Handel House Talent Scheme - a programme to further the career development of promising young professional baroque music performers. She also won a Basso Continuo Prize at the ‘Gianni Gambi’ Competition in Pesaro (Italy).

Katarzyna is a director of the Royal Baroque ensemble (Continuo Foundation Grantee in 2022), who were highly commended in the final of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition and who perform internationally. Katarzyna’s CDs include ‘Forgotten Vienna’ with The Amadè Players (Resonus Classics 2015), ‘French Collection’ solo harpsichord CD (2018), ’Inventions’ with harpsichord works by Stephen Dodgson and Elizabeth Maconchy (Prima Facie Records 2023). She has also recorded for BBC Radio 1.

Apart from the solo, chamber music and orchestral performance work, Katarzyna is a passionate teacher at the Pembridge Hall School and Morley College in London, also delivering Mozart250 opera projects to schools with The Mozartists’ outreach team.

In 2023 Katarzyna was selected in an open call for the ‘Out of Her Mouth’ project, a collaboration between the Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera and Hera, a highly acclaimed staged production of Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s biblical cantatas, performed in Findhorn, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London Spitalfields Festival and York Early Music Festival.