ABOUT US
OUT OF PASSION FOR THE BEAUTY OF INSTRUMENTS
The idea of our Foundation was born out of a shared passion for the arts, in particular classical music and the closely related art of violin making. We firmly believe that this unique, first violin making foundation in Poland will significantly contribute to the development and promotion of this fascinating, but still not very widespread field.
Polish artistic violin making has to offer to its audience hundreds of years of magnificent history of works of the highest aesthetic value, unique in the European arena. It is our dream that the names of the greatest masters of Polish violin making should resound with a familiar note, both in the circles of the recipients of Polish culture and among the lovers of this art outside our borders.
OUR GOALS
promoting the work of contemporary and historical Polish luthiers
organising and participating in events promoting violin-makers and their work
organising and participating in seminars, scientific symposia, supporting research and scientific programmes
conducting research
promoting the development of artistic violin making education
carrying out publishing activities
supporting the development and promotion of the work of young Polish violin making artists
cooperating with cultural and scientific institutions, associations and foundations
prospecting and acquiring Polish violin-making instruments
running instrument rental services
supporting initiatives related to the promotion and development of artistic violin making
promoting culture and art
preserving cultural goods and national heritage
FOUNDATION BOARD
PROF. DR HAB. HONORATA STALMIERSKA
PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD
luthier, professor of artistic violin making, head of the Department of Artistic Violin Making at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. In addition to teaching students and supervising doctoral candidates, she conducts research on Polish violin making of the 17th and 18th centuries. She is the co-author of the book Polish Violin Making School. Instruments by Groblicz and Dankwart Masters, published in 2016 by the National Museum in Poznań. She collaborates with many cultural and scientific institutions in Poland and abroad.
As a member of the Polish Artists Violin Makers Union (ZPAL), the French Association des Luthiers et Archetiers pour le Departement de la Facture Instrumentale and the British Violin Making Association, she constantly participates in seminars and exhibitions across Europe, where she presents the results of her research and promotes the Polish violin making school.
In 2019, she was the artistic director of the 6th Włodzimierz Kamiński Violin Making Competition, which was opened to international violin students for the first time on her initiative. She regularly organises international workshops and seminars at the Academy of Music in Poznań.
In addition to her academic work, Honorata Stalmierska runs her own workshop where she builds and repairs instruments. Her artistic output includes over one hundred instruments, including violins, violas, viola d’amore, viola da gamba and classical and historical guitars.
DR JAN BARTOŚ
FOUNDER, BOARD MEMBER
luthier, a graduate of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of
Music in Poznań. After graduation, he became a manager of Eric Blot’s violin
making workshop in Cremona, which he ran for 8 years, building new instruments,
as well as restoring and issuing expert appraisals for the most famous
instruments of the old European masters. In 2007, he moved to Paris and opened
his own workshop in the heart of the French luthier’s centre. He is a member of
the French Association des Luthiers et Archetiers pour le Departement de la
Facture Instrumentale and the British Violin Making Association.
Jan is the co-author of the catalogue Polish School of
Violin Making. Instruments by Groblicz and Dankwart Masters. His latest
research has confirmed the Polish origin of an instrument in the collection of
the Musée de la Musique in Paris and led to an official change in its
attribution. For this research he was awarded a doctoral degree at his Alma
Mater. The dissertation was later published in 2022 as a monograph titled “Polish
Violin in the Musée de la Musique in Paris”, as part of the publication series “Unknown
Works of Polish Violin Makers”.
DR HAB. ALINA MĄDRY, PROF. UAM
BOARD MEMBER
musicologist, student of Professor Irena Poniatowska, associate professor at the Institute of Musicology of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, member of the Research and Editorial Team of Jasna Góra Musical Sources, secretary of the Musicology Committee of the Poznań Society of Friends of Sciences, associate of the Archdiocesan Archive in Poznań, founder and president of the Musica Patria Association, originator and mentor of the web portal Fundamentum focused on early music. In the years 2012 – 2016 she worked as a curator at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań, a branch of the National Museum.
The author of three books („Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Aesthetics – Stylistics – Work”; „The Baroque, Part 2: 1697-1795. Religious Music and its Baroque Modus Operandi”, series: „The History of Music in Poland” vol. III, Muzyka w klasztorze norbertanek w Strzelnie, with Tomasz Nowak), source critical edition, numerous scientific and popular science articles.
She has participated in more than fifty national and international scientific conferences. She has conducted research grants related to the editing of musical sources, especially those kept in the Archdiocesan Archive in Poznań.
In her activities, both scientific and popularizing, she concentrates primarily on issues related to Polish and European music from the end of the 17th to the first half of the 19th century. She is seeking, discovering and editing the unknown sources of Polish Music. It leads to their premières on many festivals and activities of the Musica Maxima team, which she is in charge of. She cooperates with many institutions and initiates numerous activities in the country, which serve to spread knowledge about the Polish musical culture of the past. Her efforts also extend beyond the borders of the country, among others by participating in international conferences and collaborating with RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales).
She tries her passion to be infectious for her students and all those who she meets in her path.
DR JACEK STECZKOWSKI
BOARD MEMBER
luthier, graduate of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan at the Artistic Violin Making Department. During his studies, he completed a year-long internship at the violin making workshop ‘Maison Bernard’ with Jan Strick and Pierre Guillaume. After graduation, he moved to Belgium, where he ran his own atelier in Leuven until 2000. From 2000, he worked at ‘Kenneth Warren & Son’, a three-generation American luthier workshop in Chicago, where he performed complex repairs for the next 10 years. He also worked with many other ateliers, including in Belgium, France, the United States and China. In 2010, he returned permanently to Poland and opened a workshop in Krakow.
In 2018, he received his doctoral degree at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, defending his thesis ‘Copies and forgeries in artistic violin making’.
MATEUSZ SMÓL
MANAGING DIRECTOR
violinist, economist, cultural manager. He is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Bern and Erasmus University Rotterdam. He started his career as a violinist, winning dozens of national and international competitions. He was a member of the Orchestra Academy of the Zurich Opera.
As an economist and researcher, his interests lie in violin markets. He participates in research on Polish violin making of the 17th and 18th centuries. As a cultural manager, he cooperates with many artistic agencies and cultural institutions in Poland and abroad. He actively promotes classical music through his own brand SMÓL Creative Classical Music Production and Management.
He currently works in Madrid as an executive manager of Maskarade Producciones, organising and managing concerts, opera productions and festivals.
FOUNDATION COUNCIL
Joanna Szurka-Baranowska
Anna Biadasz-Dolińska
Marta Zuzanna Huk
FOUNDERS
dr med. Sławomir Smól
dr Jan Bartoś