Program and Artist Biography

With special thanks to the Andrzej Markowski Foundation and its Artistic Director, Ms. Malgorzata Markowska

Izabella Szałaj-Zimak, I violin / Elwira Przybyłowska, II violin / Marek Czech, viola / Michał Pepol, cello

Shortlisted in 2007 for the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Music Award, the Royal String Quartet from Warsaw has been named a BBC New Generation Artist and performed at prestigious British festivals including Aldeburgh, City of London, Brighton and Lichfield, and at BBC festivals including two Chamber Proms and the Sofia Gubaidulina Festival at the Barbican.

Established in 1998, the Royal String Quartet studied with members of the Amadeus, Alban Berg, Camerata, and Chilingirian Quartets and has won top prizes at international competitions in Banff, Kuhmo, Krakow, and Casale Monferrato, along with a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Since 2004 the quartet has run its own chamber music festival in Warsaw, Kwartesencja, and other festival engagements include Angela Hewitt's Trasimeno Music, Dortmund's Next Generation, the Musikfesttage in Frankfurt, Classique au Vert in Paris, and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia. Major concert halls where they have appeared include London's Wigmore and Cadogan halls, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts.

The quartet has performed with Angela Hewitt, Thomas Allen, Ann Murray, Mark Padmore, Emmanuelle Bertrand, Laurence Power, Martin Fröst, and the Skampa Quartet. Their concerts have been broadcast on Polish Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, and other European radio stations, as well as on TV MEZZO. The quartet has recorded five CDs, including its latest for Hyperion released in January 2009.

During his studies with Alexander Borovsky, pianist Eugen Indjic attended the Juilliard School and studied theory and composition at Harvard University with Lorin Berman and Leon Kirchner. In 1968, he met Artur Rubinstein, with whom he consulted in New York and Paris for over ten years. Between 1965 and 1972, Indjic studied privately with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Clifford Curzon in Fountainebleau. Before enrolling for the Chopin competition, he also worked with Witold Małcużyński in Majorca and Konstanty Schmaeling in Paris.

Mr. Indjic won awards at three international piano competitions: fourth prize in Warsaw at the Chopin International Piano Competition, 1970; third prize at the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, 1972; and second prize in Tel Aviv at the Artur Rubinstein International Competition, 1974.

In 1965 he appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf, becoming the youngest soloist ever to appear with the famous orchestra. On the invitation of Arthur Fiedler, Mr. Indjic appeared each season at the Tanglewood Summer Festival with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Mr. Indjic has performed in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle and Far East. Mr. Indjic has been an international piano competition juror in Warsaw (Chopin International Piano Competition, 2000), Lisbon, Tel Aviv and Monte Carlo. He holds summer master classes in Paris and Prague.